Swanepoel's Opal is a species of 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...

 in 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 endemic to 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...

, where it is found in the Swartberg Pass and Schoemanskloof, the Groot Swartberg, the Huis River Pass and Gamkaskloof

Gamkaskloof

The Gamkaskloof is a narrow isolated valley about 20 miles long with a maximum of 600 feet wide located in the Swartberg mountain range.- History :...

 in the West Cape.

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 23-26 mm for males and 24-34 mm for females. Adults are on wing from October to January. There is one extended generation per year.

The larvae feed on Thesium

Thesium

Thesium is a genus of plants in the family Santalaceae. It contains about 325 species distributed on all Old World continents, but is most diverse in South Africa....

species and Tylecodon paniculata. They are attended to by Crematogaster liengmei ants.