Species of butterfly
Anthene lunulata , the lunulated hairtail and red-spot ciliate blue , is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae . It is found in Senegal , Gambia , Mali , Burkina Faso , Guinea , Sierra Leone , Liberia , Ivory Coast , Ghana , Togo , Benin , Nigeria , Cameroon , Sudan , the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Uele, Ituri, Equateur, Sankuru, Lualaba and Shaba), Angola , Zambia , Kenya , Zimbabwe , Mozambique and north-eastern Botswana .[ 2] The habitat consists of savanna and forests.
Adults of both sexes are attracted to flowers, including those of Tridax species. Adult males mud-puddle . Adults have been recorded on wing from October to May and in August.
The larvae feed on the young shoots and the outer cortex of the young leaves of Combretum , Acacia , Albizia and Berlinia species, as well as Brachystegia boehmii , Brachystegia spiciformis , Entada abyssinica , Isoberlinea angolensis , Julbernardia globiflora and Parkia filicoides . They are associated with ants of the genus Pheidole , as well as Camponotus acvapimensis and Technomyrmes detorquens .
References