''Chrysoritis phosphor'', the scarce scarlet or golden flash, is a

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

of the family

Lycaenidae Lycaenidae is the second-largest family of butterflies (behind Nymphalidae, brush-footed butterflies), with over 6,000 species worldwide, whose members are also called gossamer-winged butterflies. They constitute about 30% of the known butterfl ...

. The species was first described by

Roland Trimen Roland Trimen Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (29 October 1840 in London – 25 July 1916 in London) was a British-South African Natural history, naturalist, best known for ''South African Butterflies'' (1887–89), a collaborative work wi ...

in 1866. It is found in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...

is 24–28 mm for males and 26–31 mm for females. Adults are on wing year round, but mainly in November and April. The associated ant species is unknown but is suspected to be an arboreal '' Crematogaster'' species.

Subspecies

*''Chrysoritis phosphor phosphor'' (Eastern Cape) *''Chrysoritis phosphor borealis'' (Quickelberge, 1972) (KwaZulu-Natal midlands and Mpumalanga)

References

Butterflies described in 1866 Chrysoritis Endemic butterflies of South Africa Taxa named by Roland Trimen {{Aphnaeini-stub