Coeliades Hübner, 1818

Cock, Matthew J. W., 2010, Observations on the biology of Afro-tropical Hesperiidae (Lepidoptera) principally from Kenya. Part 1. Introduction and Coeliadinae, Zootaxa 2547, pp. 1-63 : 24

Coeliades Hübner

The type species of the genus is C. forestan , perhaps the commonest species of the genus in Kenya and much of Africa. The genus is restricted to Africa. About 14 species are found in mainland Africa of which nine are recorded from Kenya. The recorded food plants are Dicotyledons, and include at least seven plant families, although all species treated here except C. libeon include species of Malpighiaceae in their host plant range. I have reared six of the Kenyan species of Coeliades (including one reared in Côte d'Ivoire). All form a similar series of caterpillar shelters, except when feeding on the thick, tough leaves of plants such as Acridocarpus zanzibaricus , when C. kenya , C. sejuncta (and P. a. anchises ) make minimal shelters by rolling the leaf upwards slightly and drawing the edges together with a few strands of silk. Pupae are mostly pale with scattered spots, but that of C. kenya is pale brown with extensive black markings.

The adults are all strong flyers. Males patrol a territory, flying up and down the edge of a patch of forest for example, settling for periods underneath leaves with their wings closed. This habit of patrolling has given rise to the common name of policeman for the genus. However, adults are most often seen coming to flowers. Both sexes indulge freely, and are then not difficult to catch. In May 1988, I observed over a period of several weeks that all four of the common species of Coeliades and Pyrrhiades were coming to feed at the flowers of Lantana camara growing on the bank above my Nairobi home; C. f. forestan was the commonest, followed by P. a. anchises , C. pisistratus and C. libeon . On another occasion, during the long rains in June 1988, C. f. forestan , P. a. anchises and C. pisistratus were all common at flowers of low-growing Acanthaceae in the vicinity of Bushwhackers Camp, yet on the same day at nearby Kibwezi Forest I only saw one solitary C. f. forestan . However, on other occasions all three have been common at Kibwezi Forest.

Adults will also come to damp soil to drink, in the drier parts of Kenya. Kielland (1990) states that males are attracted to bird droppings, but I have not seen this behaviour in Kenya. Adults usually rest with their wings closed, or at most slightly open, when feeding at flowers or liquids. When at flowers and at water, T.B. Larsen (pers. comm. 2009) has sometimes seen them with the wings fluttering by a centimetre or so—this may be partly, but not only, on flowers that cannot support the weight of the butterfly, e.g. Tridax procumbens (Asteraceae) .