Pardaleodes Butler, 1870b

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 : 316

Pardaleodes Butler, 1870b

This is a genus of six Afrotropical species, conspicuously spotted with orange and normally found in forests ( P. tibullus (Fabricius) and P. bule Holland) or in disturbed forest and adjacent open areas. Five species of the genus have been reared from grasses, and probably all will be found to be grass-feeders. T.B. Larsen (pers. comm. 2014) reared P. edipus (Stoll) from at least two species of grass in Lagos in 1969. In Côte d’Ivoire, Vuattoux (1999) has reared P. i n c er t a m u rci a (Plötz) once from Imperata cylindrica and P. sator sator (Westwood) once from Oplismenus hirtellus . Both P. incerta and P. s a t o r occur as far east as western Kenya and Tanzania in different subspecies ( Figure 11 ), but we have not located the early stages of either.

Figures

FIGURE 11. Adults of Pardaleodes spp., Kenya. 1, female P. incerta incerta sunbathing, Shimba Hills, 13 Dec 1990; 2, male P. incerta incerta at flower of Justicia flava, Kakamega Forest, 17 Jun 1991; 3, female P. sator pusiella (Mabille) sunbathing, Kakamega Forest, 17 Jun 1991; 4, P. sator pusiella at flower of Justicia flava, Kakamega Forest, 17 Jun 1991.