''Leptotes pulcher'', the beautiful zebra blue, is a

butterfly Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

of the family

Lycaenidae Lycaenidae is the second-largest family (biology), 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 ...

. It is found in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

south of the

Sahara The Sahara (, ) is a desert spanning across North Africa. With an area of , it is the largest hot desert in the world and the list of deserts by area, third-largest desert overall, smaller only than the deserts of Antarctica and the northern Ar ...

. The

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

is 18–24 mm for males and 18–26 mm for females. Adults are on wing year-round, with a peak from November to May in the north and probably only the warmer months in South Africa. The larvae feed on ''

Sesbania sesban ''Sesbania sesban'', the Egyptian riverhemp, is a species of plant in the legume family, a fast growing species, it has four varieties that are currently recognized. Synonyms include: *''Aeschynomene aegyptiaca'' (Pers.) Steud. *''Aeschynomene ...

''.

References

Butterflies described in 1874 Leptotes (butterfly) Taxa named by Richard Paget Murray Butterflies of Africa {{Polyommatini-stub