Erikssonia edgei

A female that is ready to oviposit will investigate the surfaces of plants with her antennae. When she encounters the food plant she uses her antennae to search for traces of the trail pheromones of the host ant. Upon encountering this, she will walk down until she reaches the ground at the base of the plant. There she will oviposit the yellowish ochre eggs by curving her abdomen down to the ground surface. The eggs darken to greyish brown, and their appearance has been likened to a truffle. Their micro-structure is considered quite unique among lycaenid eggs. Ants carry the eggs into the nest where the larvae hatch in about 18 days, and congregate with the ant brood.[3]

The different larval instars are fairly uniform in appearance. They have pinkish grey bodies with a maroon line down the dorsum, flanked by bluish green and regular reddish brown markings on the sides. The head is dark with yellow markings, while the neck and anal shields are likewise dark, but with a broad, yellow median line. The well-developed honey-gland is located on the seventh segment, and retractile white tubercles with protective spines are located on the eighth segment.[3]

The larvae shelter during the day in the nest of the host ant, and emerge at night, sometimes simultaneously, to feed on the host plant. The first two instars feed on the leaf surfaces, while the third and fourth begin to consume the leaf margins. The larvae are much larger than the ants, which always accompany them. The ants may stroke them slowly with their antennae, and often feed at their honey-glands. Motionless larvae may extrude their tubercles to ward them off. The 5th and 6th instars feed only on leaf edges. The sixth and last instar takes about three weeks to grow to over 3 cm in length. It pupates inside the ant nest, but will only expand its wings once exposed to light.[3]

It is believed that the adult butterfly's black-spotted orange markings are a sign of unpalatability, and they may be toxic due to the larval stage's poisonous food plants.[2] It is suspected that they may form part of a mimicry ring with Telchinia serena.

The first known population was located at 1,595 m.a.s.l. in a sparse mountain bushveld near Jan Trichardt's Pass in the central Waterberg. They frequented 3 ha at the northwestern base of Perdekop, a peak on the edge of an expansive, level valley.[3] It was discovered there on 21 December 1980 by Dr. Dave Edge, who was accompanied by his spouse Esmé.[4] This population was known to fly from December to early February. About 12 years later it was locally extinct, and no other populations were then known. Its local extinction was ascribed to habitat changes induced by altered grazing and fire management practices.[1][5] The short grass and host plants were taken over by turpentine grass during a period when the conservation area suffered from poor administration.[6]

On 2 March 2013, Prof. Mark Williams and his spouse Tildie discovered two new colonies in a 5 ha area of the private Bateleur Nature Reserve, some 42 km southeast of the type locality. They are situated at 1,550 and 1,580 m.a.s.l. respectively. This population was found to fly from November to April. Jeremy Dobson and Owen Garvie were assigned to implement a conservation plan for this new locality in the southeastern Waterberg.[7] Vegetation at the new locality is treeless grassland, with the hitherto known larval host-plant, Gnidia kraussiana, present but uncommon. Females were observed to lay their eggs at the base of Gnidia microcephala besides G. kraussiana, and the ant host appeared to be a Lepisiota species, as was the case at the type locality.[5] Following the severe 2015/2016 drought, the butterflies did not appear as expected in November 2016.[6]