''Megalopalpus zymna'', the common harvester, is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. It is found in

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...

Côte d'Ivoire Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...

, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon,

Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea ( es, Guinea Ecuatorial; french: Guinée équatoriale; pt, Guiné Equatorial), officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea ( es, link=no, República de Guinea Ecuatorial, french: link=no, République de Guinée équatoria ...

(Mbini and Bioko),

Gabon Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north ...

, the Republic of the Congo, the

Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR; ; , RCA; , or , ) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the DR Congo to the south, the Republic of the C ...

Angola , national_anthem = "Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

, the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

, southern Sudan,

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The south ...

, north-western

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...

and

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are ...

.Afrotropical Butterflies: Lycaenidae - Subtribe Miletina
/ref> The habitat is forest and dense agricultural land. Adults

mimic MIMIC, known in capitalized form only, is a former simulation computer language developed 1964 by H. E. Petersen, F. J. Sansom and L. M. Warshawsky of Systems Engineering Group within the Air Force Materiel Command at the Wright-Patterson AFB in ...

distasteful day-flying

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of ...

s. Both sexes have been recorded feeding from the secretions of the

Auchenorrhyncha The Auchenorrhyncha suborder of the Hemiptera contains most of the familiar members of what was called the "Homoptera" – groups such as cicadas, leafhoppers, treehoppers, planthoppers, and spittlebugs. The aphids and scale insects are the ot ...

species that the larvae feed on. The larvae are carnivorous. They feed on

species belonging to the families Cicadellidae and Membracidae, including '' Leptocentrus altifrons'', ''

Anchon relatum ''Anchon'' is a genus of treehoppers. The name is derived from gr, ἀγκών (bend, elbow) referring to the characteristic bend in the backward facing horn that arises vertically from the pronotum and turns at a near-right-angle over the abdom ...

'', '' Gargara variegata'' and '' Nehela ornata''. They creep up on their prey, periodically stopping and vibrating the true legs. On reaching the prey, the legs are vibrated on the closed wings of their target, much as the tending ants do with their antennae. The larva then raises its body over the cicadellid, then drops onto it, grasping it with its true legs. The prey is killed by a bite to the back of the neck, then completely consumed, the legs of the larva aiding in holding the prey and guiding the prey to its mouth. The larvae are dark brown. They are associated with the ant species ''Pheidole aurivillii'' race ''kasaiensis'' and ''Camponotus akwapimensis'' var. ''poultoni''.

References

External links

Seitz, A. ''Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde'' 13: Die Afrikanischen Tagfalter. Plate XIII 65
''f'' Butterflies described in 1851 Miletinae {{Miletinae-stub