The Basuto Skolly or Basuto Magpie (Thestor basutus) 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 South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

, Botswana

Botswana

Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are referred to as "Batswana" . Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966...

 and Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...

.

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 30-39 mm for males and 35-42 mm for females. Adults are on wing from October to November and from February to April. There is one generation per year.

Larvae of ssp. basutus have been reared on psyllids in nests of the Pugnacious Ant Anoplepsis custodiens. Larvae of ssp. capeneri feed on Pulvinaria iceryi until third instar, the fourth and final instar larvae live in the nests of Pugnacious Ants, which feed them by trophallaxis, they also feed on detritus and ant larvae.

Subspecies

• Thestor basutus basutus (East Cape to Lesotho, the KwaZulu-Natal midlands, the Orange Free State, the North West Province and North Cape, Botswana, eastern Zimbabwe)
• Thestor basutus capeneri Dickson, 1972 (Gauteng and, Limpopo Province and Mpumalanga)