''Orachrysops nasutus'', the nosy 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

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. 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 30–38 mm for males and 25–39 mm for females. Adults are on wing from December to January. There is one generation per year. The larvae feed on '' Indigofera cuneifolia''.

Subspecies

* ''Orachrysops nasutus nasutus'' (high altitude montane grassland in the Amatolas and the southern

Drakensberg The Drakensberg (Zulu language, Zulu: uKhahlamba, Sotho language, Sotho: Maloti, Afrikaans: Drakensberge) is the eastern portion of the Great Escarpment, Southern Africa, Great Escarpment, which encloses the central South Africa#Geography, Sout ...

in the Eastern Cape) * ''Orachrysops nasutus remus'' Henning & Henning, 1994 (Lesotho to the south-eastern KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg)

References

Butterflies described in 1994 Orachrysops {{Polyommatini-stub