''Orachrysops niobe'', the Brenton blue, is a species of

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 ...

in 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 ...

and is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

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 24–38 mm for males and 22–42 mm for females. Adults are on wing from October to November and from February to March. There are two generations per year. The species was discovered in 1858 by

Roland Trimen Roland Trimen Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (29 October 1840 in London – 25 July 1916 in London) was a British-South African Natural history, naturalist, best known for ''South African Butterflies'' (1887–89), a collaborative work wi ...

Knysna Knysna (; ) is a town with 76,150 inhabitants (2019 mid-year estimates) in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is one of the destinations on the loosely defined Garden Route tourist route. It is situated 60 kilometres east of the c ...

Western Cape Province The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabi ...

of South Africa.Trimen, R. 1862. On some new species of South African butterflies. Transactions of the Entomological Society of London, 3(1): 279-291 It was not seen again until 1977 when Dr Jonathan Ball of

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

found a population at

Nature's Valley Nature's Valley is a holiday resort and small village on the Garden Route along the southern Cape coast of South Africa. Nature's Valley lies between the Salt River, the foothills of the Tsitsikamma Mountains, the Indian Ocean and the Groot Rive ...

50 km to the east of

.Henning, S.F. & Henning G.A. 1989. South African Red Data Book: butterflies. South African National Scientific Programmes Report 158. Pretoria: Council for Scientific and Industrial Research This population died out during the 1980s, but in 1991 Ernest Pringle of Bedford in the

Eastern Cape Province The Eastern Cape ( ; ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, and its largest city is Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth). Due to its climate and nineteenth-century towns, it is a common location for tourists. It is also kno ...

located another colony at Brenton-on-Sea. A housing development planned for the site was prevented from being built after a highly publicised campaign to save the species from extinction.Steenkamp, C. & Stein, R. 1999. The Brenton Blue saga. Endangered Wildlife Trust, Parkview, South Africa 105p Due to this, the land where the species breeds was procured by the

South African Government The Government of South Africa, or South African Government, is the national government of the Republic of South Africa, a parliamentary republic with a three-tier system of government and an independent judiciary, operating in a parliamentary ...

and created into a Special Nature Reserve in July 2003. The butterfly is the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

of the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

Orachrysops ''Orachrysops'' is an Afrotropical genus of butterflies in the family Lycaenidae. Species * ''Orachrysops ariadne'' (Butler, 1898) * ''Orachrysops brinkmani'' Heath, 1997 * ''Orachrysops lacrimosa'' (Bethune-Baker, 1923) * ''Orachrysops mijburgh ...

'',Vari, L. & Kroon, D. 1986 Southern African Lepidoptera - a series of cross referenced indices. Pretoria: The Lepidopterists' Society of Southern Africa & The Transvaal Museum. 198p. and is

red list The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological sp ...

ed as

critically endangered An IUCN Red List critically endangered (CR or sometimes CE) species is one that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. As of December 2023, of t ...

.Henning, G.A., Terblanche, R.F & Ball, J.B. (eds.) 2008. South African Red Data Book: butterflies. SANBI Biodiversity Series. Pretoria: South African National Biodiversity Institute (in press) The Special Nature Reserve at Brenton is managed by CapeNature, assisted by a management committee and informed by research conducted by Dave Edge of

.Edge, D.A. 2005. Ecological factors influencing the survival of the Brenton blue butterfly Orachrysops niobe (Trimen) (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae). PhD thesis. North-West University: Potchefstroom, South Africa This research studied the life cycle of the Brenton blue and all the ecological factors that impact on its survival including

geology Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...

microclimate A microclimate (or micro-climate) is a local set of atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric conditions that differ from those in the surrounding areas, often slightly but sometimes substantially. The term may refer to areas as small as a few square m ...

, vegetation communities, ant interactions (

myrmecophily thumb , Myrmecophilous aphids being tended by ants Myrmecophily ( , ) consists of positive, mutualistic, interspecies associations between ants and a variety of other organisms, such as plants, other arthropods, and fungi. It may also incl ...

),Edge, D.A., Robertson, H.G. & van Hamburg, H. 2008. Ant assemblages at three potential breeding sites for the Brenton blue butterfly, Orachrysops niobe (Trimen). African Entomology 16(2): 00-00. and the biology of its larval food plant ''

Indigofera ''Indigofera'' is a large genus of over 750 species of flowering plants belonging to the pea family Fabaceae. They are widely distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Description ''Indigofera'' is a varied genu ...

erecta'' Thunberg.

References

*South African Government Gazette Notice 939 of 04/07/2003.

External links

Dedicated website
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5474760 Butterflies described in 1858 Orachrysops Insects of South Africa Butterflies of Africa Taxa named by Roland Trimen Taxonomy articles created by Polbot