Illustrated descriptions of juvenile stages of an <i>Aloeides</i> species close to <i>margaretae</i> Tite & Dickson, including comparisons with both <i>A. apicalis </i>Tite & Dickson and <i>A. depicta</i> Tite & Dickson

Abstract

The butterfly in this study is provisionally treated as Aloeides margaretae and represents observations and material from Moorreesburg, Lambert’s Bay and Graafwater, in the Western Cape province. The juvenile stages illustrated herein were mostly obtained from Graafwater; although they are consistent with observations at the other localities. These juvenile stages are compared with Gowan Clark’s illustrations of A. depicta in Tite & Dickson (1968). Some small differences in markings of the larval stages were noted, that together with a difference in the shape of the hind wing, lend some support for their separate status. A comparison is also made here between the adult stages of A. margaretae and A. apicalis. This reveals little significant or consistent difference between them in either wing shape or markings, inferring that their taxonomic relationship needs to be reviewed in a molecular study. It is surprising that Tite & Dickson did not attempt to define or question the relationship between them seeing that both taxa were described by them in the same publication and that according to their designated paratypes, their distributions overlapped. It is unlikely that species of host plant or host ant can throw any further light on their relationship as there is a dearth of such data in most descriptions of myrmecophilous juveniles, especially in the earlier publications, prompting a plea herein for lepidopterists to add observed host information to the usual collecting data and to collect samples of the host ants wherever possible.