Tsitana Evans, 1937

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 : 303

Tsitana Evans, 1937

There are five species of this exclusively southern African genus, four from South Africa discussed below, and Tsitana wallacei Neave from Zambia and the adjoining DR Congo and Tanzania ( Evans 1937, Ackery et al. 1995). The four South African species are grass feeders, but only T. uitenhaga Evans has been documented.

Tsitana tsita (Trimen) and T. uitenhaga are reported to feed on Stipa dregeana ( Murray 1959, Dickson & Kroon 1978, Pringle et al. 1994, Henning et al. 1997). Stipa dregeana has been treated as a synonym of S. keniensis , but this does not seem to be generally accepted as yet. Although Evans (1937) and Ackery et al. (1995) treat uitenhaga as a subspecies of T. tsita , South African workers treat the two as separate species ( Dickson & Kroon 1978, Pringle et al. 1994, Henning et al. 1997, Woodhall 2005). Clark (in Dickson & Kroon 1978) illustrates the complete life history of T. uitenhaga . The ovum is dome-shaped, relatively tall, and rather smooth. The caterpillars are green, long and cylindrical, and there are six instars; the head is marked with brown and white in the final instar, black and white in the earlier instars, and plain black in the first instar. The pupa is white, cylindrical, downturned at the cremaster, with a dark head bearing a pair of short, upward-directed projections.

Tsitana tulbagha Evans was recorded from Pseudopentameris macrantha (as Pentameris macrantha ) by Murray (1959). However, subsequent authors refer to the food plant as a coarse tussock grass, Danthonia spp. ( Dickson & Kroon 1978) or Merxmuellera spp. ( Pringle et al. 1994, Henning et al. 1997), the latter genus having been separated from the former, and correctly applied to the African species. Tsitana dicksoni Evans is recorded from Pseudopentameris macrantha (as Pentameris macrantha ) by Murray (1959), which is subsequently referred to as probably P. macrantha ( Dickson & Kroon 1978, Pringle et al. 1994, Henning et al. 1997).