''Thestor dryburghi'', the Dryburgh's skolly, 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 ...

. It 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 ...

where it is only known from northern Namaqualand in succulent

Karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe !Orakobab or Khoemana word ''ǃ’Aukarob'' "Hardveld") is a semi-desert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its ext ...

-covered hills at

Kamieskroon Kamieskroon is a small town in the Kamiesberg Local Municipality, lying in the foothills of the Kamiesberge at an elevation of approximately 800 m (2 600 ft). The town is more or less in the centre of Namaqualand, about 70 km (43 m ...

to the north-west of Steinkopf in the North Cape. 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 mm for males and 36–38 mm for females. Adults are on wing from August to October. There is one generation per year.

References

Thestor Butterflies described in 1966 Endemic butterflies of South Africa Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Miletinae-stub