Astictopterus stellata Mabille, 1891

Cock, Matthew J. W. & Congdon, T. Colin E., 2014, Observations on the biology of Afrotropical Hesperiidae (Lepidoptera). Part 7. Hesperiinae incertae sedis: grass and bamboo feeders, Zootaxa 3872 (4), pp. 301-354 : 304

Astictopterus stellata Mabille, 1891

Mabille (1891) described this species from Mombasa (as Mombassa) and it occurs from coastal Kenya south to Zimbabwe in three subspecies: nominate stellata from the Kenya coast ( Figure 1 ), ssp. amania Evans from the Usambara ( Evans 1947), Nguru and Uluguru Mountains of north-east Tanzania ( Ackery et al. 1995), and ssp. mineni (Trimen) from southern Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi ( Ackery et al. 1995) and Mozambique ( Pringle et al. 1994). Astictopterus s. stellata is fairly common around Makardara and Marere Forests, Shimba Hills, Kenya, throughout the year (except March) according to Sevastopulo (1974), who adds ‘larvae on grasses’; however, he did not document the life history (Sevastopulo unpublished) or include the record in his compilation of food plants ( Sevastopulo 1975), so it is probably based on field observations or circumstantial evidence.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Adult Astictopterus stellata, Shimba Hills, Kenya, 13 Apr 1990.