''Tsitana tulbagha'', the Tulbagh sylph, 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

Hesperiidae Skippers are a group of butterflies placed in the family Hesperiidae within the order Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies). They were previously placed in a separate superfamily, Hesperioidea, but have since been placed in the superfamily Papilion ...

. 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 habitat consists of grassy, rocky areas in

fynbos Fynbos (; , ) is a small belt of natural shrubland or heathland vegetation located in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. The area is predominantly coastal and mountainous, with a Mediterranean climate. The fynbos ...

and

Karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe Khoemana (also known as !Orakobab or Korana) word is a semidesert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its extent is ...

.Afrotropical Butterflies: Hesperiidae - Subfamily Heteropterinae
/ref> 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 30–40 mm for males and 40–41 mm for females. Adults are on wing from September to December (with a peak from October to November). There is one generation per year. The larvae feed on '' Pseudopentameris macrantha'', ''

Danthonia ''Danthonia'' is a genus of Eurasian, North African, and American plants in the grass family. Members of this genus are sometimes referred to as oatgrass, but that common name is not restricted to this genus. Other common names include heathgras ...

'' and ''

Merxmuellera ''Merxmuellera'' is a genus of African grasses named for Hermann Merxmueller, a 20th century German botanist and taxonomist who was an expert on African flora. Species ''Merxmuellera'' contains the following species: * '' Merxmuellera ambalavao ...

'' species.

Subspecies

*''Tsitana tulbagha tulbagha'' (from the western Western Cape mountains to the southern Northern Cape) *''Tsitana tulbagha kaplani'' Dickson, 1976 (southern and eastern Western Cape mountains to Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape)

References

Butterflies described in 1937 Heteropterinae Butterflies of Africa Taxa named by William Harry Evans {{Hesperiidae-stub