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African Butterfly News Can Be Downloaded Here MARCH 2020 EDITION: ABN 2020 - 2 AFRICAN (NEWS FROM JANUARY AND FEBRUARY) BUTTERFLY THE LEPIDOPTERISTS’ SOCIETY OF AFRICA NEWS LATEST NEWS Welcome to March’s newsletter! The Pioneer Caper White (Belenois aurota) migration, at least on the Highveld, was the most spectacular example of this phenomenon for many years, possibly the largest since the great butterfly migration of 1966. Millions of butterflies were seen flying (in a largely north-easterly direction) in the Johannesburg area - and also further north apparently. The spectacle has captured the public’s imagination and LepSoc Africa have fielded an unprecedented number of media interviews during the last couple of months! Our thanks to Belenois aurota for the great marketing opportunity… A few species that are usually fairly scarce in the Johannesburg area joined the parade and I’ve seldom seen so many Lemon Belenois aurota (female) Brits, North West Traveller (Teracolus subfasciatus) or Zebra White (Pinacopteryx (Lourens Erasmus) eriphia eriphia) locally. Corrections Steve Collins noted that, in the Uganda section of January’s newsletter I had incorrectly captioned a Charaxes pleione bebra (male) as Charaxes paphianus subpallida. Also, Steve Woodhall pointed out that the photographs of Chrysoritis penningtoni, by Raimund Schutte and myself, were in fact Chrysoritis turneri amatola (to be fair, they were flying with C. penningtoni…) Tom Desloges pointed out that on page 58, the Angolan Eurema is Eurema senegalensis. In addition he was dubious about the Nepheronia argia on p. 65 which he thinks may be Belenois solilucis. 1 Highveld Butterfly Club Braai The Highveld Butterfly Club (HBC) – the Gauteng, Free State and North West branch of LepSoc Africa – hosted its annual year-starting braai on Sunday 26 January. As usual, the braai was hosted at the Magaliesburg farm of Hermann and Louisa Staude. We had a really good turn-out – about 30 people – including a few new members and potential new members. Special guests included David Agassiz, who happened to be staying with Hermann at the time. I counted 30 butterfly species in the adjacent veld (Abundance Index 3.9 – Average), which was pretty good, although there were a couple of conspicuous absentees, such as the Marsh Sylph (Metisella meninx); I haven’t seen this butterfly at all this season. The Braai Bennie Coetzer, Graham Henning, Dave Caroline Erasmus, Steven Ball, Lourens and Hanna Edge Erasmus Cacyreus marshalli Cigaritis mozambica Afrogegenes letterstedti Magaliesburg Magaliesburg Magaliesburg (Jeremy Dobson) (Lourens Erasmus) (Jeremy Dobson) LepSoc Africa – Budget for 2020 Peter Ward, LepSoc Africa’s Treasurer, is preparing a list of items for our 2020 financial budget. I’ve requested R15 000 for barcoding samples for the Aloeides Project; does anyone else have any suggestions? Please forward them to me ([email protected]) or Peter ([email protected]). 2 HBC meeting with Hermann Hacker The Highveld Butterfly Club (HBC) were treated to a talk by internationally renowned Noctuidae expert, Hermann Hacker - Hermann was visiting SA in the company of Hermann Staude. Hermann (Hacker that is) gave an interesting presentation, outlining the history of climate and vegetation change within the African continent and some associated relationships regarding the evolution of Hermann Hacker being presented with the Torben Larsen Memorial Tankard at a HBC meeting on 13 African Lepidoptera. Feb At November’s LepSoc Africa Conference in Knysna, Hermann had been awarded the Torben Larsen memorial tankard, for “Moths of Africa – Volume 1”, which is considered to be one of the most important publications in the field of African Lepidoptera for several years. A new Thestor A new species of Thestor, Thestor coetzeri, has been described in Metamorphosis, by Ernest Pringle and Alan Heath. The butterfly (which has been provisionally named the Inky Skolly by the Coetzers), was found in the Cederberg by Andre Coetzer at Middelbergpas, Citrusdal, Western Cape on 17 December 2017. It resembles the Boland Skolly (Thestor protumnus protumnus), but has been separated on the basis of its darker appearance and differences in the male genitalia. This species is named after Bennie and André Coetzer, in recognition of their substantial contribution to the study of Lepidoptera in South Africa. Note: according to Wikipedia, Cederberg is the generally accepted spelling for this region, which combines the English (Cedarberg) and Afrikaans (Sederberg) variants. New Field Guide (Steve Woodhall) Fully revised, the new edition of Field Guide to Butterflies of South Africa features all of South Africa’s 671 butterfly species. This popular guide includes newly described species and subspecies, and the most recent taxonomic changes based on DNA studies. As in the first edition, the photography is exceptional and 70% of the images in the book are new. Images show male and female forms (where they differ) and upper- and undersides (where possible). The species accounts have been comprehensively updated and expanded, covering identification, habits, flight periods, broods, typical habitat, distribution and larval food sources. A helpful introductory section with over 100 images, including 55 early stages images, discusses butterfly biology, taxonomy, classification, anatomy and behaviour. The book sells for R400. Butterflies of South Africa 3 Neptis (Ian Richardson) An electronic copy of the Neptis paper, by LepSoc Africa member Dr Ian Richardson, may be viewed on the LepSoc Africa website. To order a hard copy, go to PUBLICATIONS / SHOP and select your preferred postage option. The price is R300 for South African members. lepsocafrica.org The paper, which will be printed as a stand-alone Metamorphosis supplement (Metamorphosis Volume 30 Part 2), is titled “Revision of the genus Neptis Fabricius, 1807 (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae) in the Afrotropical Region: Currently described taxa”. Ian revises the Afrotropical Neptis, based on comparison of barcodes, facies and genitalia. The paper covers the currently described taxa and further publications are envisaged to describe new species revealed by barcoding. Mylothris (Haydon Warren-Gash) A paper, by LepSoc Africa member, Haydon Warren-Gash and co-authored by Kwaku Aduse- Poku, Leidys Murillo-Ramos and Niklas Wahlberg has been published in Nota Lepidopterologica. The paper titled, Systematics and evolution of the African butterfly genus Mylothris (Lepidoptera, Pieridae), deals with the evolutionary history of the Afrotropical butterfly genus Mylothris. Based on six gene regions, it divides the genus into five species groups. Mylothris Cameroonian Wildlife (Michel Libert) Jean-Louis Amiet, recipient of the Ivan Bampton Perpetual Teapot at November’s LSA Conference, requested Michel Libert to convey the following message: Jean-Louis has completed three works devoted to Cameroonian wildlife: • The first book is a synthesis of his publications on the early stages of the Cameroonian Limenitidines, a synthesis which leads him to propose a phylogeny of this group. • The other two books concern the Amphibians of Cameroon, a quite different field which may also interest some of you or naturalists around you. The iconography of the three books is exceptional. Refer to the attached document (in French) for more information and for details of how you may purchase any of the books. Cameroonian Wildlife books by Jean-Louis Ameit 4 Karoo BioGaps - Project completed (Domitilla Claudia Raimondo) Dave Edge forwarded me a message from SANBI’s Domitilla Raimondo, leader of the BioGaps Project, which is reproduced below: The Project Management Team is pleased to announce that all the final reporting for the Karoo BioGaps Project has been completed. The reports have been uploaded to the NRF system, and a full folder of all project documents, reports and materials will be delivered to the FBIP team in Pretoria. If you would like to see the final NRF report and its annexures, they are temporarily on Carol’s GoogleDrive: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LcqXSGnzlQqfjQ- DspkkIjORcYS7fFC7 and you are welcome to request the WORD versions from Carol. Thank you all so much for your dedication, time and energy over the last four years. We feel that this project has been an amazing success, despite the likelihood of shale gas exploration diminishing. The achievements from this project have been numerous – and I paste the “Achievements” section of the NRF report here below as a summary. I am particularly proud of us reaching all the targets that we had set for the project, and for the exciting additional achievements such as newly described species and range extensions. I am also very pleased to let you know that all data for species of conservation concern have been included in South Africa’s decision support portal – the new “EIA Screening Tool”, which is now a mandatory tool for practitioners to use when undertaking environmental impact assessments. Please do pass on our thanks to your field assistants, herbarium/museum assistants, students, interns and colleagues who assisted with the project – every contribution, no matter how small, has helped make this project a resounding success. Thank you to the small Project Management Team who kept the project on track, with an especially big thanks to Carol Poole – who provided ongoing attention to the detail of ensuring this project was well managed. Thank you to the FBIP team and SANBI senior managers who were always available for advice when needed. Achievements section of the final report to the
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