Gegenes niso

Gegenes niso, the common Hottentot skipper or plain Hottentot skipper, is a butterfly of the family Hesperiidae. It is found in Africa. It is found in a wide range of habitats, including savanna, grassland and open patches in forests.[2]

Common Hottentot skipper
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Hesperiidae
Genus: Gegenes
Species:
G. niso
Binomial name
Gegenes niso
(Linnaeus, 1764)[1]
Synonyms
  • Papilio niso Linnaeus, 1764
  • Hesperia letterstedti Wallengren, 1857
  • Pamphila indica Mabille, 1883
  • Gegenes hottentota ocra Evans, 1937
  • Thymelicus brevicornis Plötz, 1884

The wingspan is 29–33 mm for males and 29–35 mm for females. Adults are on the wing year-round in warmer areas (with a peak from October to March) and from October to March in cooler areas.[3]

The larvae feed on various grass species, namely Ehrharta species (including Ehrharta erecta), Pennisetum clandestinum, Zea and Cynodon species.

Subspecies
  • Gegenes niso niso
Range: southern Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Eswatini, Lesotho and South Africa, where it occurs in Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West, Gauteng, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern and Western Cape provinces
  • Gegenes niso brevicornis (Plötz, 1884) – plain Hottentot
Range: west, central and east Africa, including Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria and Zambia

References
  1. Gegenes at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms
  2. Afrotropical Butterflies: Hesperiidae - Subfamily Hesperiinae
  3. Woodhall, Steve (2005). Field Guide to Butterflies of South Africa. Cape Town, South Africa: Struik. ISBN 978-1-86872-724-7.
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