Actizera lucida

The Rayed Blue: a small butterfly that could be overlooked as similar to those I had mentioned in the Three "Z's" post. The white  stripe on the underside, however, is unmistakable.
Both these specimens from Bisley; at top an exuberant form in summer, below a tiny specimen in an early dry winter. Compare the size of the bottom specimen with the flower (?Dicleptera)
 

Anthene amarah

The Black-striped Hairtail, readily recognised, as its name implies by the black streak emerging from the base of  fore-wing underside. The female (second from top) upperside is brown with more marked ocelli and lunules than the male. Compare this with the male's greyish background with his bronze sheen.
It can be found quite frequently in acacia savannah, its food plant being Acacia sp. including A. karroo.
All of the above specimens were from Bisley NR where it appears to be particularly well populated.
 

Anthene Millari

I was about to discard this record as an indifferent photo of an elderly Anthene I had found at Cumberland. On looking a little closer it seemed to be closest to Millar's Hairtail. If so it is my one and only record. It has a reputation for bring elusive.
 

Cacyreus marshalli

The Geranium Bronze. As compared with our previous home where this butterfly was a rarity, in Golden Pond it is common: cultivated Pelargoniums are frequent in gardens here.

The top two photographs are of the same female ovipositing on one of my Perargoniums. The egg was too small to photograph, My plants are devastated and I have stopped growing the plant! Steve Woodhall remarks that this butterfly probably originated in the SW of the RSA, but has spread as far as Europe and even the UK due to the cultivation of Pelargoniums.
Despite what is written, it would appear that this butterfly is allowed a minimal amount of basal blue sheen (cf C. tespis which is now C. fractus.)
[On my todo: C. lingeus and C. virilis.]

Acraea petraea

The Blood-red Acraea.

We had a Xylotheca kraussiana (African Dog Rose) in our garden. It proved a great atraction for this butterfly, and an opportunity to follow its life cycle. In certain seasons, eggs would be laid in large numbers, in groups on the upper sides of the leaves. Most of these would hatch, the larvae ravaging the tree. Only a small proportion advanced to the pupa stage, and even fewer of these survived to an emerging butterfly.

Interestingly, nearly all the females were were the same blood red colour as the male. I have a single record of the brown form. The females can be told by the all black background colour of the abdomen and a white sub-apical band. The male lacks that band, and, like some other acraeas, has an orange posterior abdomen together with anal claspers.

    

Lampides boeticus

Apparantly the accepted common name now is the Pea Blue, being previously called the Lucerne or Long-tailed Blue.The genus established by Hubner (1819) is monotypic. The TS from Linne's Papilio boeticus. It is widespread, but doesn't occur in the New World.
The bottom picture is of an elderly matron ovipositing on a Polygala in our garden. Food plants are derived from the Fabales which include Fabaceae (previously Leguminaceae) as well Polygala.
    

Graphium leonidas

The Veined Swordtail - not all the spp. of the genus have a sword tail. On a hot summers day it could often be found mud-puddling in the drift at the Cumberland campsite. These are two different specimens, I think both are form brasidas.

There is an Azanus Natalensis in the background, joining in the puddling.