''Pentila tropicalis'', the tropical pentila or spotted buff, 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 eastern

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 ...

. 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 29–38 mm for males and 34–44 mm for females. Subspecies ''P. t. tropicalis'' has two generations per year, with adults on wing in October and November and from January to April. Subspecies ''P. t. fuscipunctata'' has continuous broods from November to April. The

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. The ...

e feed on species of

cyanobacteria Cyanobacteria (), also known as Cyanophyta, are a phylum of gram-negative bacteria that obtain energy via photosynthesis. The name ''cyanobacteria'' refers to their color (), which similarly forms the basis of cyanobacteria's common name, blu ...

Subspecies

*''P. t. tropicalis'' (KwaZulu-Natal, Zululand, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi) *''P. t. chyulu'' van Someren, 1939 (south-eastern Kenya (Chyulu Hills)) *''P. t. fuscipunctata'' Henning & Henning, 1994 (sheltered riverine lowland forest of the eastern Limpopo province and further north) *''P. t. mombasae'' (Grose-Smith & Kirby, 1889) (coastal forests of eastern Kenya and eastern Tanzania)

References

Butterflies described in 1847 Pentila {{Poritiinae-stub