Coeliades keithloa
Species of butterfly
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Coeliades keithloa, the red-tab policeman, is a butterfly of the family Hesperiidae. It is found from Ethiopia south to South Africa.
| Coeliades keithloa | |
|---|---|
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| Larva on Acridocarpus natalitius | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Clade: | Pancrustacea |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Hesperiidae |
| Genus: | Coeliades |
| Species: | C. keithloa |
| Binomial name | |
| Coeliades keithloa (Wallengren, 1857)[1] | |
| Synonyms | |
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The wingspan is 58–64 mm for males and 61–66 mm for females. Adults are on wing year-round in warmer areas with peaks in late summer and autumn in southern Africa.[2]
The larvae feed on a wide range of plants, including Barringtonia racemosa, Acridocarpus natalitius, A. zanzibaricus, A. glaucescens, A. ristalitius, Stephanotis (syn. Dregea), Combretum and Byrsocarpus species.
Subspecies
- Coeliades keithloa keithloa (South Africa: KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape Province)
- Coeliades keithloa kenya Evans, 1937 (coast of Kenya, Tanzania: from the northern coast inland to Mount Kilimanjaro)
- Coeliades keithloa menelik (Ungemach, 1932) (south-western Ethiopia, southern Sudan, Uganda)
- Coeliades keithloa merua Evans, 1947 (Kenya: north-eastern slopes of Mount Kenya)
