''Iolaus silarus'', the straight-line sapphire, is a
butterfly of the family
Lycaenidae. The species was
first described by
Hamilton Herbert Druce in 1885. It is found in
Mozambique,
Zimbabwe,
Botswana,
Namibia,
Malawi,
Zambia, southern
Zaire,
Tanzania, south-western
Kenya and
South Africa. In South Africa it is found in wooded savannah in northern
KwaZulu-Natal
KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locate ...
and in savannah from
Eswatini
Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its no ...
to
Mpumalanga
Mpumalanga () is a province of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Swazi, Xhosa, Ndebele and Zulu languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It ...
,
Limpopo and
North West. It is also present in
Afromontane
The Afromontane regions are subregions of the Afrotropical realm, one of the Earth's eight biogeographic realms, covering the plant and animal species found in the mountains of Africa and the southern Arabian Peninsula. The Afromontane regions ...
forest on the
Wolkberg
The Wolkberg is a mountain range in Tzaneen, Limpopo Province, South Africa. It is a northern termination and a subrange of the Drakensberg mountain range which lines up from Eastern Cape, Lesotho, Kwazulu Natal and Mpumalanga. At 2200 m (7 ...
and the northern
Drakensberg.
The
wingspan is 32–38 mm for males and 35–40 mm for females. Adults are on wing year round in warmer areas and from September to January in the cooler western part of its range.
The larvae feed on ''
Erianthemum dregei
''Erianthemum dregei'' is a species of parasitic plant in the family Loranthaceae, and is commonly known as the hairy mistletoe or wood flower.
Distribution and habitat
These plants are native to Africa and are parasitic on a large number of tr ...
''.
Subspecies
*''Iolaus silarus silarus'' (Eswatini, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi, Zambia, Democratic Republic of the Congo: Shaba, Tanzania, southern Kenya, South Africa: Limpopo Province, Mpumalanga, North West Province, KwaZulu-Natal)
*''Iolaus silarus brainei''
Henning & Henning, 1984 (northern Namibia)
References
Iolaus (butterfly)
Butterflies described in 1885
Butterflies of Africa
Taxa named by Hamilton Herbert Druce
{{Theclinae-stub