''Platylesches dolomitica'', the hilltop hopper, 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

Hesperiidae Skippers are a family of the Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) named the Hesperiidae. Being diurnal, they are generally called butterflies. They were previously placed in a separate superfamily, Hesperioidea; however, the most recent taxonomy ...

. It is only known from dolomite ridges near

Steelpoort Steelpoort is a mining town on the R555 road in Sekhukhune District Municipality in the Limpopo province of South Africa. It is located on the border with Mpumalanga province. Mining operations around Steelpoort include the Dwarsrivier chrome ...

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 ...

Horns Nek Horns Nek Pass is situated in the Gauteng province of South Africa, on the metropolitan road M17, within the urban area of Pretoria in the Tshwane Municipality. The pass crosses the Magaliesberg The Magaliesberg (historically also known as ...

near

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

and Carletonville in

Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...

. The habitat consists of dolomite ridges in

bushveld The Bushveld (from af, bosveld, af, bos 'bush' and af, veld) is a tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands, sub-tropical woodland ecoregion of Southern Africa. It encompasses most of Limpopo Province and a small part of ...

and sour grassland.Afrotropical Butterflies: Hesperiidae - Subfamily Hesperiinae
/ref> 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 32–35 mm for males and 33–37 mm for females. Adults are on wing from August to September. There is one generation per year. The larvae probably feed on ''

Parinari capensis ''Parinari capensis'', the sand apple, is a species of flowering plant in the family Chrysobalanaceae, found in Botswana, DRC, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. It is tall. The leaves are elliptic with a white underside. ...

''.

References

Butterflies described in 1997 Erionotini {{Erionotini-stub