Coeliades chalybe, the blue policeman, is a butterfly in the family Hesperiidae. It is found in Senegal, Greece, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, from Equatorial Guinea to Angola and to Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.[2] The habitat consists of primary and secondary forests.

Coeliades chalybe
In Ghana
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Hesperiidae
Genus: Coeliades
Species:
C. chalybe
Binomial name
Coeliades chalybe
(Westwood, 1852)[1]
Synonyms
  • Ismene chlorine Westwood, 1852

Adults of both sexies feed at flowers on forest edges or along forest roads. Adult males also feed from bird droppings.

The larvae feed on Theobroma cacao, Cynanchum, Acridocarpus (including Acridocarpus smeathmanni) and Marsdenia species.

Subspecies

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  • Coeliades chalybe chalybe (Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea to Uganda, western Kenya, northern Tanzania, and Angola)
  • Coeliades chalybe immaculata Carpenter, 1935 (south-western Ethiopia)

References

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  1. ^ Coeliades, funet.fi
  2. ^ "Afrotropical Butterflies: Hesperiidae - Subfamily Coeliadinae". Archived from the original on 2014-11-29. Retrieved 2013-01-24.