Coeliades keithloa (Wallengren)

Cock, Matthew J. W., 2010, Observations on the biology of Afro-tropical Hesperiidae (Lepidoptera) principally from Kenya. Part 1. Introduction and Coeliadinae, Zootaxa 2547, pp. 1-63 : 56

Coeliades keithloa (Wallengren)

Chiba (2009) was unable to locate the type of C. keithloa ; it is in the Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, and illustrations are available at SMNH (2010). Coeliades keithloa is recorded to feed on Barringtonia racemosa (Lecythidaceae) and Acridocarpus natalitius (Malpighiaceae) in South Africa ( Murray 1932, 1959; Dickson & Kroon 1978; Pringle et al. 1994). Coeliades keithloa “and subspecies” are recorded from A. zanzibaricus , A. glaucescens , and Rourea orientalis (= Byrsocarpus orientalis ) ( Connaraceae ) ( van Someren 1974), but these records are likely to refer to C. kenya .

The caterpillar and pupa of C. keithloa are described by Aurivillius (1925) and Murray (1932) and illustrated by G.C. Clark (in Dickson & Kroon 1978) and Henning et al. (1997) from South Africa. The caterpillar of C. keithloa , as illustrated in the last two works, resembles C. pisistratus ( Figure 34 ) and C. f. forestan ( Figure 27 ) more than it does C. kenya . It has two rows of black spots across the orange head capsule where C. kenya has none ( Figure 46 ).

Figures

FIGURE 27. Instar 5 caterpillars of Coeliades f. forestan, collected on Combretum sp. A, Kibwezi Forest, 21 Jan 1990, and photographed 22 Jan; left, individual 90/10F; right, individual 90/10C.

FIGURE 34. Instar 6 caterpillar of Coeliades pisistratus collected on Caucanthus auriculatus, Kibwezi Forest, 31 Dec 1989; moulted to sixth instar 12 Jan 1990, photographed 15 Jan, 25mm (89/109C).

FIGURE 46. Final instar caterpillar of Coeliades kenya collected on Acridocarpus zanzibaricus, Diani Beach, 18 Apr 1990, moulted 7 Apr, photographed 8 Apr, 33mm (90/44B).