Spialia mafa higginsi Evans, 1937 Spialia mafa (Trimen) is the only Kenyan representative of the sertorius group of Spialia (De Jong 1978). Larsen (1991) suggests that S. galba (Figure 1) replaces it in Asia. Trimen (1870) described mafa from Botswana (Basutoland), but the range of the species (or superspecies—see De Jong 1978) extends through East Africa to India and Hainan. Subspecies mafa is restricted to southern Africa, while subspecies higginsi which was described from Mumias, Kenya (Evans 1937), is recorded from Saudi Arabia and Yemen, through Ethiopia to southern Zaire and northern Malawi. In Kenya (the only country where S. mafa higginsi seems fairly common), this species is widespread through the highlands of central and western Kenya. It is reported from the Chyulu Hills (Van Someren 1939), but De Jong (1978) does not list any material from this area, so this locality should be considered unconfirmed. It seems to be associated with open grassy spaces rather than forest. Food plants. The two subspecies of S. mafa currently have slightly different food plant lists (Table 5). Sevastopulo’s (1975) records are based on those of Van Someren (1974) as Sevastopulo (unpublished) did not rear this species himself. I have only found caterpillars of S. spio and S. diomus on Sida spp. and Hibiscus spp. when collecting in Kenya in areas where S. mafa higginsi is known to occur or might be expected to occur, which leads me to the suggestion that confirmation of Van Someren’s records would be desirable. Life history and natural enemies. G.C. Clark (in Dickson & Kroon 1978, Plate 17) illustrates the detailed life history of ssp. mafa from South Africa. Dickson & Kroon (1978) suggest parasitism is similar to that of other members of the genus.

Published as part of Cock, Matthew J. W., 2016, Observations on the biology of Afrotropical Hesperiidae (Lepidoptera) with particular reference to Kenya. Part 10. Pyrginae, Carcharodini, pp. 301-350 in Zootaxa 4173 (4) on page 323, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4173.4.1, http://zenodo.org/record/256597