''Bicyclus safitza'', the common bush brown or common savanna bush brown, is a

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

of the family

Nymphalidae The Nymphalidae are the largest family of butterflies, with more than 6,000 species distributed throughout most of the world. Belonging to the superfamily Papilionoidea, they are usually medium-sized to large butterflies. Most species have a re ...

. It is found in all of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

south of the

Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

. Its preferred habitat is forests and other well-wooded habitats. 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 ...

is 40–45 mm for males and 43–48 mm for females. Adults are on wing year round. The larvae feed on various grasses, including ''

Ehrharta erecta ''Ehrharta erecta'' is a species of grass commonly known as panic veldtgrass. The species is native to Southern Africa and Yemen. It is a documented invasive species in the United States, New Zealand, Australia, southern Europe, and China ...

''.''Bicyclus''
at Markku Savela's ''Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms''

Subspecies and forms

*''B. s. safitza'' – south of Sahara except Ethiopia ::wet-season form, f. ''safitza'' – south to

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is a province of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Swazi, Xhosa, Ndebele and Zulu languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It ...

, South Africa ::wet-season form, f. ''injusta'' – South African east coast regions ::dry-season form, f. ''evenus'' – widespread *''B. s. aethiops'' (Rothschild & Jordan, 1905) – Ethiopia

References

Elymniini Butterflies described in 1850 {{Bicyclus-stub