Pentila pauli

Pentila pauli, the Paul's buff, Paul's pentila or spotted pentila, is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. It is found in Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe.^[2] The habitat consists of deciduous woodland and forest margins.

Pentila pauli
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Lycaenidae
Genus:	Pentila
Species:	P. pauli
Binomial name
Pentila pauli Staudinger, 1888[1]
Synonyms
Pentila radiata Lathy, 1903 Pentila multipunctata Lathy, 1903 Pentila nyassana alberta Hulstaert, 1924 Pentila nyassana benguellana Stempffer and Bennett, 1961 Pentila clarensis Neave, 1903 Pentila nyassana elisabetha Hulstaert, 1924 Pentila nyassana elisabetha ab. nigribasis Hulstaert, 1924 Pentila leopardina Schultze, 1923 Pentila multiplagata Bethune-Baker, 1908 Pentila amenaida var. nyassana Aurivillius, 1899 Pentila amenaida daina Suffert, 1904 Pentila amenaida f. amenaidana Strand, 1911 Pentila nyassana obsoleta Hawker-Smith, 1933 Pentila nyassana obsoleta var. cataractae Stevenson, 1940 Pentila nyassana ras Talbot, 1935

The larvae feed on very dark, blue-green (black) algae (cyanobacteria) growing on tree trunks.

Subspecies

• P. p. pauli (Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, western Cameroon)
• P. p. abri Collins & Larsen, 2001 (south-eastern Senegal, western Guinea)
• P. p. alberta Hulstaert, 1924 (western Tanzania, Democratic Republic of the Congo: Tanganika)
• P. p. benguellana Stempffer & Bennett, 1961 (Angola: Benguella and Bihe districts)
• P. p. clarensis Neave, 1903 (Uganda, western Kenya, Tanzania)
• P. p. dama (Suffert, 1904) (southern coast of Tanzania)
• P. p. elisabetha Hulstaert, 1924 (northern and western Zambia, Democratic Republic of the Congo: Shaba, Sankuru, Kasai and Maniema)
• P. p. leopardina Schultze, 1923 (southern Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo: Cataractes, Kinshasa, Equateur, Tshuapa and Mongala)
• P. p. multiplagata Bethune-Baker, 1908 (southern Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo: Uele, Ituri, Tshopo and North Kivu)
• P. p. nyassana Aurivillius, 1899 (Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia: east of the Luangwa Valley)
• P. p. obsoleta Hawker-Smith, 1933 (Zimbabwe: Lomagundi district to the southern bank of the Zambezi River and the Victoria Falls, as well as Dichwe, Zambia)
• P. p. ras Talbot, 1935 (south-western Ethiopia)