Platylesches picanini Holland , 1894

Cock, Matthew J. W. & Congdon, Colin E., 2013, Observations on the Biology of Afrotropical Hesperiidae (Lepidoptera). Part 5. Hesperiinae incertae sedis: Dicotyledon Feeders, Zootaxa 3724 (1), pp. 1-85 : 71

Platylesches picanini Holland, 1894

In 1989, S.E. Woodhall reared this species from Pa. curatellifolia in Venda (now part of Limpopo Province in the far north of South Africa) ( Woodhall 1994). This food plant record is repeated in Pringle et al. (1994), Henning et al. (1997), Woodhall (2005) and Larsen (2005). Woodhall (1994) notes that ‘the larvae inhabited leaf shelters in which the leaf was cut at either end of the shelter and with the edge of the leaf pulled across to touch the leaf surface. The joint was closed by means of many very fine, short, brown silk threads, concealing the larva. Inside the shelter, the larva had spun a bed of strong struts of white silk, on which it rested.’ Woodhall (1994) and Henning et al. (1997) illustrate the penultimate and final instar caterpillars and the pupa. The final instar caterpillar superficially resembles Pl. moritili forms alpha or beta.

TCEC has also reared Pl. picinini from Pa. curatellifolia occasionally from Mulanje, Malawi. The caterpillar is a tube maker, and was not distinguished from the caterpillars of Pl. moritili .