''Iolaus timon'', the long-tailed sapphire, is a
butterfly in the family
Lycaenidae. It is found in
Guinea
Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...
,
Sierra Leone,
Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...
,
Ghana,
Togo,
Nigeria,
Cameroon,
Gabon, the
Republic of the Congo
The Republic of the Congo (french: République du Congo, ln, Republíki ya Kongó), also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply either Congo or the Congo, is a country located in the western coast of Central Africa to the w ...
,
Angola, the
Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Uganda and
Tanzania.
The habitat consists of forests.
Adults of both sexes have been recorded feeding from the large yellow flowers of asteraceous plants and the flowers of ''
Poinsettia
The poinsettia ( or ) (''Euphorbia pulcherrima'') is a commercially important flowering plant species of the diverse spurge family Euphorbiaceae. Indigenous to Mexico and Central America, the poinsettia was first described by Europeans in 1834 ...
'' species.
The larvae feed on the flowers of ''
Loranthus incanus'', ''
Phragmanthera capitata'', ''
Phragmanthera usuiensis
Phragmanthera is a genus of plants in the family Loranthaceae
Loranthaceae, commonly known as the showy mistletoes, is a family of flowering plants. It consists of about 75 genera and 1,000 species of woody plants, many of them hemiparasites ...
'' and ''
Phragmenthera polycrypta''. They are dull green.
Subspecies
*''Iolaus timon timon'' (Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria: south and the Cross River loop, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, northern Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo)
*''Iolaus timon congoensis''
(Joicey & Talbot, 1921) (Democratic Republic of the Congo: Uele, Kivu, Tshopo, Tshuapa, Equateur, Kinshasa, Sankuru and Tanganika)
*''Iolaus timon orientius''
Hulstaert, 1924 (Uganda, north-western Tanzania)
References
External links
''Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde'' 13: Die Afrikanischen Tagfalter. Plate XIII 67''d''
Butterflies described in 1787
Iolaus (butterfly)
{{Theclinae-stub