Metisella aegipan

"Mountain sylph" redirects here. For the opera, see The Mountain Sylph.

"Shaka's ranger" redirects here. For the other butterfly with this common name, see Kedestes chaca.

Metisella aegipan, the mountain sylph or Shaka's ranger, is a butterfly of the family Hesperiidae. It is found in the mountains of the Cape in South Africa and in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Lesotho. The habitat consists of wetlands, marshy places, and grassy gullies in montane grassland.^[2]

Mountain sylph
a
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Hesperiidae
Genus:	Metisella
Species:	M. aegipan
Binomial name
Metisella aegipan (Trimen, 1868)[1]
Synonyms
Cyclopides aegipan Trimen, 1868

The wingspan is 28–34 mm for males and 28–36 mm for females.^[3]

These small to medium-sized skippers are brown on the upperside and yellow brown on the underside. They have a yellow patch on the upperside forewing.^[3]

Their flight period is between December and February with a single brood.^[3]

Subspecies

• Metisella aegipan aegipan (South Africa, Lesotho)
• Metisella aegipan inyanga Evans, 1955 (Zimbabwe, Mozambique)