Hypoleucis Mabille, 1891

Cock, Matthew J. W., Congdon, T. Colin E. & Collins, Steve C., 2016, Observations on the biology of Afrotropical Hesperiidae (Lepidoptera). Part 9. Hesperiinae incertae sedis: Zingiberales feeders, genera of unknown biology and an overview of the Hesperiinae incertae sedis, Zootaxa 4066 (3), pp. 201-247 : 222

Hypoleucis Mabille, 1891

Hypoleucis is a small Afrotropical genus of just three species ( Evans 1937, Ackery et al. 1995). Evans (1937) and Ackery et al. (1995) treat the type species of the genus, H. tripunctata Mabille as having three subspecies, but Larsen (2005) raises doubts as to whether subspecies are justified ‘since any population shows considerable variation’. Vuattoux (1999) reared H. tripunctata tripunctata once from Aframomum alboviolaceum (as A. latifolium ) in June 1973 and once from A. cereum (as A. sceptrum ) in July 1979 at Lamto, Côte d’Ivoire (repeated as Aframomum in Vande weghe 2010). The common H. ophiusa (Hewitson) feeds on Costus spp. ( Costaceae ) and is treated below. In contrast, Vuattoux (1999) reared the much rarer H. sophia Evans from Sorghum arundinaceum (Poaceae) once in February 1972 (repeated in Vande weghe 2010). It seems rather unlikely that different members of the same genus would feed on Zingiberales and Poaceae , so this record needs confirmation. However, it is worth noting Evans’ (1937) observation that H. sophia differs from the other two species in having no forewing brand and very special, completely different palpi, the third segment being comparatively long, pointed and in continuation of the second segment; but in appearance, antennae, venation and wing shape it does not differ from the other species. It is almost certainly not congeneric (T.B. Larsen pers. comm. 2015). We have no other information on the early stages of H. tripunctata and H. sophia .