Gretna Evans, 1937

This is a genus of six Afrotropical skippers (Evans 1937, Ackery et al. 1995). Gretna as currently constituted includes some species that feed on palms and at least one that feeds on Marantaceae, an unusual combination in one genus. Below we treat Gretna carmen capra, G. waga (Plötz) and G. balenge balenge (Holland), all of which feed on palms. Vuattoux (1999) reared G. cylinda (Hewitson) from three species of Marantaceae only. MJWC found a Gretna sp. caterpillar on a Marantaceae in Uganda, which based on the known distribution of Gretna spp. is probably G. cylinda, but could be G. zaremba jacksoni Evans. This species will be treated in a later part of this series, dealing with Marantaceae-feeders.

Based on the early stages of these three species and G. cylinda, there are three distinct groups of species: (1) Gretna carmen and G. waga, (2) G. balenge, and (3) G. cylinda . As we show below, the first two groups have substantial differences, but also some key similarities. Once we have treated G. cylinda along with other Marantaceae-feeders, we will further discuss the integrity of the genus.