Acleros mackenii

Acleros mackenii, the Macken's skipper or Macken's dart, is a butterfly of the family Hesperiidae. It is found from the East Cape to KwaZulu-Natal and in Zimbabwe.

Acleros mackenii
A. m. instabilis
Kakamega Forest, Kenya
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Insecta
Order:
Lepidoptera
Family:
Hesperiidae
Genus:
Acleros
Species:
A. mackenii
Binomial name
Acleros mackenii
(Trimen, 1868)[1]
Synonyms
  • Pamphila mackenii Trimen, 1868
  • Acleros nyassicola Strand, 1921
  • Acleros mackenii f. denia Evans, 1937
  • Apaustus olaus Plötz, 1884
  • Acleros instabilis Mabille, 1890

The wingspan is 27–32 mm for males and 29–33 mm for females. Adults are on wing year-round but are more common in late summer, autumn and winter than in the hotter midsummer months.[2]

The larvae feed on Rhus species (including Rhus corarius) and Acridocarpus species (including Acridocarpus smeathmanni).

Subspecies
  • Acleros mackenii mackenii (possibly Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, South Africa: Limpopo Province, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape Province)
  • Acleros mackenii olaus (Plötz, 1884) (Guinea, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic Congo, southern Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi)
  • Acleros mackenii instabilis Mabille, 1890 (Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia)

References
  1. Acleros at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms
  2. Woodhall, Steve (2005). Field Guide to Butterflies of South Africa. Cape Town, South Africa: Struik. ISBN 978-1-86872-724-7.


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