Eagris Guenée 1863

Cock, Matthew J. W. & Congdon, T. Colin E., 2011, Observations on the biology of Afro-tropical Hesperiidae (Lepidoptera) principally from Kenya. Part 2. Pyrginae: Tagiadini 2893, Zootaxa 2893 (1), pp. 1-66 : 8

Eagris Guenée 1863

The type species of this African genus of a dozen or so species is E. sabadius ( Gray 1832) ( Guenée 1863; Ackery et al. 1995). Adult males have either a costal fold or a hair tuft on the UNF, although these features have not yet been associated with any courtship behaviour.

The food plant families most used are Malvaceae (including former families Bombacaceae , Sterculiaceae and Tiliaceae ) and Sapindaceae in our experience. However, there are published records from Anacardiaceae , Erythroxylaceae , Malvaceae , Rhamnaceae , Sapindaceae and Violaceae and possible records from Cannabaceae , Lauraceae , and Rosaceae which need to be confirmed.

Evans (1937) recognised that Eagris is allied to Tagiades . He notes that hind tibiae in males (incorrectly given as female in text, but correct in key) of Eagris have a hair penci1 and females have anal wool. Eagris can be divided into two groups: the sabadius group have a more or less developed costal fold on the forewing of the male, whereas in males of the hereus (Druce) group there is an area of modified scales at the base of the costa on the hind wing above correlated with a hair tuft at the base of the dorsum on the forewing below ( Holland 1892; Evans 1937). In Evans’ (1937) key, E. lucetia is stated to have a more or less developed costal fold, but this is not the case for Kenyan males which I have examined (including those in the NHM), which have none. However, the appearance and the genitalia indicate a generic affinity between the species of these two groups ( Evans 1937). We have information on the early stages of members of what Evans treated as the sabadius group only, so cannot comment on the split into two groups based on their life histories, except that if E. lucetia belongs in the hereus group, the life history is extremely close to that of E. sabadius .