''Coeliades keithloa'', the red-tab policeman, 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

Hesperiidae Skippers are a family of the Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) named the Hesperiidae. Being diurnal, they are generally called butterflies. They were previously placed in a separate superfamily, Hesperioidea; however, the most recent taxonomy ...

. It is found from

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

south to

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 58–64 mm for males and 61–66 mm for females. Adults are on wing year-round in warmer areas with peaks in late summer and autumn in southern Africa. The larvae feed on a wide range of plants, including ''

Barringtonia racemosa ''Barringtonia racemosa'' (powder-puff tree, af, pooeierkwasboom, zu, Iboqo, Malay: ''Putat'') is a tree in the family Lecythidaceae. It is found in coastal swamp forests and on the edges of estuaries in the Indian Ocean, starting at the east ...

'', ''

Acridocarpus natalitius ''Acridocarpus natalitius'', the moth fruit, is a species of plant in the Malpighiaceae family. It is found in south-eastern Africa, where it ranges from Pondoland to Limpopo in South Africa, and eastwards to Eswatini and Mozambique. It is critic ...

'', '' A. zanzibaricus'', '' A. glaucescens'', '' A. ristalitius'', ''

Stephanotis ''Stephanotis'' is a genus of flowering plants first described in 1806. The name derives from the Greek stephanōtís (feminine adj.) fit for a crown, derivative of stéphanos (masculine) crown. It contains evergreen, woody-stemmed lianas with ...

'' (syn. ''Dregea''), '' Combretum'' and '' Byrsocarpus'' species.

Subspecies

*''Coeliades keithloa keithloa'' (South Africa: KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape Province) *''Coeliades keithloa kenya'' Evans, 1937 (coast of Kenya, Tanzania: from the northern coast inland to Mount Kilimanjaro) *''Coeliades keithloa menelik'' (Ungemach, 1932) (south-western Ethiopia, southern Sudan, Uganda) *''Coeliades keithloa merua'' Evans, 1947 (Kenya: north-eastern slopes of Mount Kenya)

References

Butterflies described in 1857 Coeliadinae Butterflies of Africa Taxa named by Hans Daniel Johan Wallengren {{Hesperiidae-stub