Swainson, 1830 subtribe iolaina riley, 1958 Iolaus pallene. Photo courtesy Jeremy Dobson

The larva feeds on Loranthus woodfordioides Schweinf. (Loranthaceae), chiefly on the flowers when these are present, and it is coloured pink or reddish to resemble them. When no flowers are present, it feeds on the leaves, and is then green. Egg. White, circular and slightly domed, with a pretty network pattern. Diameter about 0.5 mm. It is laid amongst the flowers, on or under the leaves, or on the stems, rather indiscriminately, singly or in pairs. Larva. The larva is very strangely shaped. Seen from above, the outline across the head is square, running from here in straight lines, to the anal segments, where there are two fin-like lateral processes, and finally terminating at the anal extremity in a point. The dorsum is coloured lighter as a rule, with dark patches on segments 2, 3, 10 and 11, but the colouring, as stated above, is very variable, being merely procryptic in design. In profile the dorsum drops vertically to the head. Sometimes the lateral anal ‘fins’ are white, as also the point of greatest width at segment 3. There are apparently neither tubercles nor gland. Length 12 mm. Pupa. The pupa is pinkish-brown, the anterior half being darker with a pink spot at the apex of the thorax. The head-case is blunt, the thorax rising abruptly from it, slightly ‘waisted’ beyond, then rising again to a ridge running transversely across the origin of the abdominal segments. The latter here are broad and flattened, with (on either side behind the ridge) a pit or depression, and above these on the dorsum a jet-black spot. The posterior extremity is tapered and stalk-like, and is attached to a stem or among the flower clusters. Length 11 mm, breadth 5 mm.

‘Loranthus species’. (Loranthaceae) [Kielland, vide Congdon and Collins, 1998: 90].

Misattributed to the Ivory Coast fauna (Larsen, 2005a).

Hancock, 2006.