''Leptotes pulcher'', the beautiful zebra blue, is a

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

of the family

Lycaenidae Lycaenidae is the second-largest family of butterflies (behind Nymphalidae, brush-footed butterflies), with over 6,000 species worldwide, whose members are also called gossamer-winged butterflies. They constitute about 30% of the known butterfl ...

. It is found in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

south of the

Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

. The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...

is 18–24 mm for males and 18–26 mm for females. Adults are on wing year-round, with a peak from November to May in the north and probably only the warmer months in South Africa. The larvae feed on ''

Sesbania sesban ''Sesbania sesban'', the Egyptian riverhemp, is a species of plant in the legume family. Synonym (taxonomy), Synonyms include: *''Aeschynomene aegyptiaca'' (Pers.) Steud. *''Aeschynomene sesban'' Carl Linnaeus, L. *''Emerus sesban'' (Carl Linna ...

''.

References

Butterflies described in 1874 Leptotes (butterfly) Taxa named by Richard Paget Murray Butterflies of Africa {{Polyommatini-stub