''Orachrysops niobe'', the Brenton blue, is a species of

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 ...

in 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 ...

and is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. 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 24–38 mm for males and 22–42 mm for females. Adults are on wing from October to November and from February to March. There are two generations per year. The larvae of the first two

instar An instar (, from the Latin '' īnstar'', "form", "likeness") is a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, between each moult (''ecdysis''), until sexual maturity is reached. Arthropods must shed the exoskeleton in order to grow or ass ...

s feed on the leaves and later instars on the rootstock of '' Indigofera

erecta This list of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names is intended to help those unfamiliar with classical languages to understand and remember the scientific names of organisms. The binomial nomenclature used for animals and plants i ...

''. The larvae are found in holes at the base of their host plant. They are attended to by '' Camponotus baynei'' ants. The species was discovered in 1858 by

Roland Trimen Roland Trimen Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (29 October 1840 in London – 25 July 1916 in London) was a British-South African Natural history, naturalist, best known for ''South African Butterflies'' (1887–89), a collaborative work wi ...

Knysna Knysna () is a town with 76,150 inhabitants (2019 mid-year estimates) in the Western Cape province of South Africa. and is one of the destinations on the loosely defined Garden Route tourist route. It lies at 34° 2' 6.3168'' S and 23° 2' 47. ...

in Western Cape Province of South Africa.Trimen, R. 1862. On some new species of South African butterflies. Transactions of the Entomological Society of London, 3(1): 279-291 It was not seen again until 1977 when Dr Jonathan Ball of

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

found a population at

Nature's Valley Nature's Valley is a holiday resort and small village on the Garden Route along the southern Cape coast of South Africa. Nature's Valley lies between the Salt River, the foothills of the Tsitsikamma Mountains, the Indian Ocean and the Groot River ...

50 km to the east of

.Henning, S.F. & Henning G.A. 1989. South African Red Data Book: butterflies. South African National Scientific Programmes Report 158. Pretoria: Council for Scientific and Industrial Research This population died out during the 1980s, but in 1991 Ernest Pringle of Bedford in the Eastern Cape Province located another colony at

Brenton-on-Sea Brenton-on-Sea is a settlement and seaside resort town 15km west of Knysna in Garden Route District Municipality in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Named after Sir Jahleel Brenton, 1st Baronet, Sir Jahleel Brenton, who declared Knysna a ...

. A housing development planned for the site was prevented from being built after a highly publicised campaign to save the species from extinction.Steenkamp, C. & Stein, R. 1999. The Brenton Blue saga. Endangered Wildlife Trust, Parkview, South Africa 105p Due to this, the land where the species breeds was procured by the

South African Government The Republic of South Africa is a parliamentary republic with three-tier system of government and an independent judiciary, operating in a parliamentary system. Legislative authority is held by the Parliament of South Africa. Executive authority ...

and created into a Special Nature Reserve in July 2003. The butterfly is the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

of the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

'' Orachrysops'',Vari, L. & Kroon, D. 1986 Southern African Lepidoptera - a series of cross referenced indices. Pretoria: The Lepidopterists' Society of Southern Africa & The Transvaal Museum. 198p. and is red listed as critically endangered.Henning, G.A., Terblanche, R.F & Ball, J.B. (eds.) 2008. South African Red Data Book: butterflies. SANBI Biodiversity Series. Pretoria: South African National Biodiversity Institute (in press) The Special Nature Reserve at Brenton is managed by CapeNature, assisted by a management committee and informed by research conducted by Dave Edge of

.Edge, D.A. 2005. Ecological factors influencing the survival of the Brenton blue butterfly Orachrysops niobe (Trimen) (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae). PhD thesis. North-West University: Potchefstroom, South Africa This research studied the life cycle of the Brenton blue and all the ecological factors that impact on its survival including

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ear ...

microclimate A microclimate (or micro-climate) is a local set of atmospheric conditions that differ from those in the surrounding areas, often with a slight difference but sometimes with a substantial one. The term may refer to areas as small as a few squ ...

, vegetation communities, ant interactions (

myrmecophily Myrmecophily ( , ) is the term applied to positive interspecies associations between ants and a variety of other organisms, such as plants, other arthropods, and fungi. Myrmecophily refers to mutualistic associations with ants, though in its m ...

),Edge, D.A., Robertson, H.G. & van Hamburg, H. 2008. Ant assemblages at three potential breeding sites for the Brenton blue butterfly, Orachrysops niobe (Trimen). African Entomology 16(2): 00-00. and the biology of its larval food plant '' Indigofera

'' Thunberg.

References

*South African Government Gazette Notice 939 of 04/07/2003.

External links

Dedicated website
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5474760 Butterflies described in 1858 Orachrysops Insects of South Africa Butterflies of Africa Taxa named by Roland Trimen Taxonomy articles created by Polbot