African Grass Jewel

Frequent

Size: 20-25 mm. Male is bright silvery blue

Upper Egypt. AOO = 30 km2. EOO = 22,000 km2. 3 locations.

Narrow (Sahel to Somalia)

Vulnerable (D2)

Possibly two generations per year.

11 records. Most recent in 1987 (Edfu)

Resident

November-April

Hostplant: Acacia (Leguminosae)

[Chilades eleusis Demaison, subspecies]
Lycaena eleusis Demaison, 1888: 66. Chilades eleusis: Stempffer, 1936a: 323; fig. 1. Seth-Smith, 1938: 154. Stempffer, 1942: 134.
This species occurs widely across the northern subdesert or savanna fringe of the Ethiopian region from Senegal to Abyssinia. It may possibly occur in the savanna environments in the Liberian interior though no specimens are known as yet.
With the exception of the Palearctic-African Actizera, whose membership in this tribe is doubtful, all three African species are representatives of widespread paleotropical species or species groups. One of them (Zizula hylax) is also represented in the New World, by the vicariant (or replacement) species Z. cyna Edwards. See the most interesting and informative accounts in Chapman (1910) and Corbet (1948).
Stempffer has referred Zizula to the Brephidiinae, but on the basis of genital structures Zizula agrees with the other genera of the present tribe in several significant ways and differs markedly from the bizarre structures of Brephidium. I accordingly place it here, as did Chapman. The problem, however, clearly needs further study.

Chilades eleusis, the sky-blue Cupid, is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. It is found in Senegal, the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Burkina Faso, northern Ghana, northern Nigeria, Niger, northern Cameroon, Chad, Sudan and Egypt. The habitat consists of dry habitats, Sudanian Savanna and the Sahel.

Adults feed from low-growing flowers.

The larvae feed on Acacia species.