Parosmodes morantii

Parosmodes morantii, the Morant's skipper or Morant's orange, is a butterfly of the family Hesperiidae. It is found in KwaZulu-Natal, Eswatini, Mozambique, Botswana, Zimbabwe and from western Kenya to Ghana.

Morant's orange
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Hesperiidae
Genus:	Parosmodes
Species:	P. morantii
Binomial name
Parosmodes morantii (Trimen, 1873)[1]
Synonyms
Pamphila morantii Trimen, 1873 Pamphila ranoha Westwood, 1881 Pamphila icteritia Mabille, 1891

The wingspan is 28–31 mm for males and 33–35 mm for females. Adults are on wing from July to early October and from December to May in a stronger summer brood (with a peak from February to March). There are two generations per year.^[2]

The larvae feed on Combretum species (including Combretum queinzii and Combretum molle), Bridelia species (including Bridelia micrantha), Quisqualis, Terminalia and Syzygium cordatum.

Subspecies

• Parosmodes morantii morantii — coast of Kenya, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of the Congo: Shaba, Angola, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Eswatini, South Africa: Limpopo Province, Mpumalanga, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal
• Parosmodes morantii axis Evans, 1937 — Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, northern Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, western Kenya, western Tanzania