Gamia shelleyi Sharpe, 1890

Cock, Matthew J. W., Congdon, T. Colin E. & Collins, Steve C., 2015, Observations on the Biology of Afrotropical Hesperiidae (Lepidoptera). Part 8. Hesperiinae incertae sedis: Dracaena Feeders, Zootaxa 3985 (3), pp. 301-348 : 307-308

Gamia shelleyi Sharpe, 1890

Sharpe (1890) described this species in the genus Proteides , based on a male captured by Captain G.E. Shelley at Fantee, Ghana. The range of this species is similar to the last, in the rainforests of tropical Africa from Guinea to western Kenya, Tanzania (Kigoma and Mpanda northwards to the Uganda border at Minziro) and south to Zambia ( Larsen 2005) and Angola ( Mendes et al. 2013). Kielland (1990) associates this species with dense forests around 1200 to 1300 m in north-western Tanzania.

Food plants. The story of the reported food plants is similar to that for G. buchholzi . Van Someren (1974) lists Raphia spp., Borassus spp. and Phoenix spp., which Sevastopulo (1975) lists as Cocos , Borassus and Raphia palms, although the substitution of Cocos for Phoenix is probably a lapse. Kielland (1990), Larsen (1991), Ackery et al. (1995) and Heath et al. (2002) repeat these records. Larsen (2005) quotes SCC that Gamia spp. feed exclusively on Dracaena spp. This was based on SCC’s record of G. shelleyi from D. camerooniana in Cameroon, and Ivan Bampton’s from D. laxissima in Nandi Forest, Kenya. SCC has since reared this species from D. camerooniana in Nigeria (Obudu Plateau, Apr 2007), D. laxissima in Uganda (Mpigi Forest, 30 km west Kampala) and D. arborea on Bioko (Jan–Feb 2011).

Life history. SCC reared this species from caterpillars on D. camerooniana in Cameroon, and the following account is based on his observations. In Figure 4 , all caterpillar figures are in the final instar. Figures 4.1–2 are early final instar; the body is relatively slender, blue-grey in colour, and the head is yellow brown with black markings. Figures 4.5–6 are near prepupa; the body is green-grey and the ground colour of the head has changed to pale brown, making the paler area around the central black spot of the face more prominent. Figures 4.3–4 are intermediate. The pupal shelter and pupa (Figure 4.7–9) are very similar to those of G. buchholzi . The pupa is 32– 33mm long, and the proboscis exends 10–12 mm beyond the tip of the cremaster.

Figures

FIGURE 4. Caterpillar, pupa and adult of Gamia shelleyi, collected on Dracaena camerooniana, Ebogo, Cameroon [SCC]. 1 – 2, early final instar, dorsal view; 3 – 6 late final instar, 3 – 4 dorsal view, 5, anterodorsal view, 6 anterior view; 7 – 9 pupa in near dorsal view, dorsolateral view and lateral view; 10, adult female underside, 9 Oct 2005.