The Mashuna Hairtail 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, from 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...

, north to Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

 and Arabia.

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 19-23 mm for males and 21-24 mm for females. Adults are on wing from September to June, with peaks in November and from March to April.

The larvae probably feed on Acacia

Acacia

Acacia is a genus of shrubs and trees belonging to the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae, first described in Africa by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in 1773. Many non-Australian species tend to be thorny, whereas the majority of Australian acacias are not...

species, including Acacia karroo

Acacia karroo

Acacia karroo also known as the Sweet Thorn, is a species of Acacia, native to southern Africa from southern Angola east to Mozambique, and south to South Africa....

and Acacia tortilis

Acacia tortilis

Acacia tortilis, the Umbrella Thorn Acacia, also known as Umbrella Thorn and Israeli Babool, is a medium to large canopied tree native primarily to the savanna and Sahel of Africa , but also occurring in the Middle East....

.

Subspecies

• Anthene contrastata contrastata (Ethiopia, Arabia)
• Anthene contrastata turkana Stempffer, 1936 (northern Kenya, Somalia, north-eastern Uganda)
• Anthene contrastata mashuna (Stevenson, 1937) (West Cape, KwaZulu-Natal to Orange Free State, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo Province, North West Province, North Cape, north to Zimbabwe to Kenya)