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Erynnis tages
It was really small and hid very well, luckily my brother spotted it while we were taking pictures at another butterfly and I concentrated on it.
grassy plains at 1100 mt above sea level
Thankyou bayucca :) I had excluded this skipper because on my guide it had the two pairs of wings separated, while my specimen had them always close, but the book showed a dead specimen which could have been moved. And Johan the name hottentot must be the african common name since it is found also there, I prefered it to pigmy skipper having visited and loved south africa :)
My input on this is that the word "hottentot" is a typical Southern African word and usage, indicating that it is from that region.
I do not think it is Gegenes pumilio, which is from a different subfamily: Hesperiinae. Not the different position with the open wings. Hesperiinae "never" shows the wings like this, but "folded".
http://tolweb.org/Gegenes
Different wing shapes and markings:
http://users.auth.gr/~efthymia/Butterfli...
I think yours is a Pyrginae, Erynnis tages. In my eyes the only possible skipper, however I must admit it looks a little bit different as others you will see on the web. It could be an older individual. Note the tiny white spots at both, forewing and hindwing margins and the row of brighter spots on the forewing. The rest of the markings you have to "think" ;-)...
What do you think and what do other people think? Definitely one to verify!!
http://www.leps.it/indexjs.htm?SpeciesPa...
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:E...
http://lepidoptera.nature4stock.com/?att...
http://users.auth.gr/~efthymia/Butterfli...