''Tarucus bowkeri'', or Bowker's 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

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 ...

, from the

Northern Cape The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of the Kgalagadi T ...

, south to

fynbos Fynbos (; meaning fine plants) is a small belt of natural shrubland or heathland vegetation located in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. This area is predominantly coastal and mountainous, with a Mediterranean clim ...

in the West Cape and east to the Amathole Mountains in the

Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha. The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in ...

. 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 23–27 mm for males and 26–29 mm for females. Adults are on wing from October to March, but is most common in early summer and sometimes also on wing in winter. There are multiple generations per year. The larvae feed on '' Phylica paniculata''.

Subspecies

*''Tarucus bowkeri bowkeri'' (from Eastern Cape along escarpment to KwaZulu-Natal and along the Drakensberg foothills) *''Tarucus bowkeri transvaalensis'' Quickelberge, 1972 (from Mpumalanga and the Limpopo province along the Drakensberg escarpment)

References

Butterflies described in 1883 Tarucus Taxa named by Roland Trimen Butterflies of Africa {{Polyommatini-stub