About Leptomyrina hirundo (Wallengren, 1857)
Leptomyrina hirundo, commonly known as the tailed black-eye, is a butterfly species belonging to the family Lycaenidae. Its distribution ranges from South Africa to the coast of eastern Kenya and Malawi. Within South Africa, it occurs in warm wooded savannah habitats stretching from the Eastern Cape to coastal KwaZulu-Natal, and also in inland riverine forest as far as Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Mpumalanga, and Limpopo. Males of this species have a wingspan of 19 to 24 millimeters, while females have a wingspan of 19.5 to 26 millimeters. Adult butterflies are active year-round in warmer regions, with population peaks occurring in November and March. The larvae of Leptomyrina hirundo feed on species from the genera Kalanchoe, Crassula, Byrophyllum, and Cotyledon.
