Anthene crawshayi

Anthene crawshayi, the Crawshay's hairtail or Crawshay's ciliate blue, is a butterfly in the Lycaenidae family. It is found in Senegal, the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa.^[2] The habitat consists of savanna and open forests.

Adult males mud-puddle and both sexes are attracted to the flowers of Acacia trees. Adults are on wing year round.

The larvae feed on the young terminal shoots of Acacia abyssinica, Acacia polycantha campylacantha, Cassia alata and Entada abyssinica. They are green with a dark dorsal line and with dark diagonal lateral stripes.

Subspecies

• Anthene crawshayi crawshayi (Senegal, the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria: south and the Cross River loop, Cameroon, Uganda, western Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, north-eastern Zimbabwe, South Africa: Limpopo Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo: Uele, Ituri, Kinshasa, Sankuru, Lualaba, Lomani, Shaba, Maniema and Kivu)
• Anthene crawshayi minuta (Bethune-Baker, 1916) (Sudan, Ethiopia, northern Uganda, Somalia, east and northern Kenya)

References

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