Observations on the biology of Afrotropical Hesperiidae (Lepidoptera) with particular reference to Kenya. Part 10. Pyrginae, Carcharodini
Author
Cock, Matthew J. W.
text
Zootaxa
2016
4173
4
301
350
journal article
38068
10.11646/zootaxa.4173.4.1
235cd1e5-39f4-43b4-a65a-94daa8e45bec
1175-5326
256597
3E955EB2-79DE-462C-B3EE-E4AF334D1F61
Spialia doris doris
Walker, 1870
Spialia doris doris
is the only representative of the
phlomidis
group of
Spialia
in
Kenya
(
De Jong
1978). It was described from ‘Tajora’ [Tadjoura,
Djibouti
] (Walker 1870) and is found in Arabia and north-eastern
Africa. De Jong
(1978) records a single male of this species from
Kenya
, from the
Tana
River
between
Garissa
and
Bura
.
A
second subspecies,
amenophis
(Reverdin), is restricted to
Egypt
, a third,
daphne
Evans, occurs in Mauretania and south-western
Morocco
, and a fourth,
evanida
(Butler) is found from
southern Iran
to Gujurat
,
India
(Evans 1949,
De Jong
1978, Larsen 2005). Obviously extremely rare in collections from
Kenya
, this species in
Kenya
is likely to be associated with sub-desert rocky conditions.
Although the life history in
Kenya
is unknown, and has not been documented elsewhere for any subspecies, there are records of food plants for ssp.
amenophis
and ssp.
doris
. Graves (1925) records
Convolvulus lanatus
as the food plant of ssp.
amenophis
in desert in northeast
Egypt
, noting that ‘this
Convolvulus
is very conspicuous in April and May, when it flowers, the extremely white petals being visible at an appreciable distance’. Most records for ssp.
doris
relate to species of
Convolvulaceae
, but it is also known to feed on at least one
Malvaceae
. In
Qatar
, Pittaway (1980) reported ‘one female was seen investigating
Corchorus depressus
, a possible food plant’ and in his subsequent work on the butterflies of western
Saudi Arabia
(Pittaway 1985) he includes
Corchorus
sp. as a food plant.
Corchorus depressus
is a prostate plant with rigid crooked branches, found on stony ground in hills and on detritus in lower wadis (
Western
1989).
Convolvulaceae
food plants include
C. hystrix
and other
Convolvulus
sp. in western
Saudi Arabia
(Pittaway 1985), and
Ipomoea imperati
(=
I. stolonifera
) by implication in the
Sinai Peninsula
(Benyamini 1984). There do not seem to be any food plant records from further south in Africa, and Larsen (1991, 2005) repeats these food plant records.