''Thestor dicksoni'', the Dickson's skolly, 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 ...

. 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 34-37.5 mm for males and 43–45 mm for females. Adults are on wing from December to April. There is one generation per year.

Subspecies

*''Thestor dicksoni dicksoni'' (montane fynbos in the

Dasklip Pass Dasklip Pass is situated in the Western Cape province of South Africa on an off-road near Porterville along the R365 highway. The road provides access to the plateau in the Groot Winterhoek mountains and the Groot Winterhoek Wilderness Area; su ...

near Porterville to the Roodezandsberg near the Tulbagh Kloof) *''Thestor dicksoni malagas'' Dickson & Wykeham, 1994 (along the Atlantic coast and on the

Langebaan Langebaan is a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa on the eastern shore of Langebaan Lagoon. Langebaan is situated 120 km north of Cape Town, just off the R27, about 28 km from Vredenburg and 20 km from Saldanha Bay. ...

peninsula) *''Thestor dicksoni warreni'' Ball, 1994 (arid strandveld Karoo near

Graafwater Graafwater is a town in the Sandveld in the Western Cape province of South Africa situated 300 km from Cape Town, about halfway between Clanwilliam and Lamberts Bay. Graafwater is the Afrikaans term for "digging for water" referring to the Afrikaa ...

, between Clanwilliam and Lambertsbaai)

References

Butterflies described in 1954 Thestor Endemic butterflies of South Africa {{Miletinae-stub