The Tropical Pentila or Spotted Buff (Phalanta eurytis) is a butterfly

Butterfly

A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...

 of the Lycaenidae

Lycaenidae

The Lycaenidae are the second-largest family of butterflies, with about 6000 species worldwide, whose members are also called gossamer-winged butterflies...

 family. It is found in eastern Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

.

The wingspan

Wingspan

The wingspan of an airplane or a bird, is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about ; and a Wandering Albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird.The term wingspan, more technically extent, is...

 is 29-38 mm for males and 34-44 mm for females. Subspecies tropicalis has two generations per year, with adults on wing in October and November and from January to April. Subspecies fuscipunctata has continuous broods from November to April.

The larva

Larva

A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...

e feed on Cyanobacteria species.

Subspecies

• Pentila tropicalis tropicalis (KwaZulu-Natal, Zululand, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi)
• Pentila tropicalis mombasae (Grose-Smith & Kirby, 1889) (coastal forests of eastern Kenya and eastern Tanzania)
• Pentila tropicalis chyulu van Someren, 1939 (south-eastern Kenya (Chyulu Hills))
• Pentila tropicalis fuscipunctata Henning & Henning, 1994 (sheltered riverine lowland forest of the eastern Limpopo Province and further north)