Deudorix dinomenes Grose-Smith 1887

[Deudorix (Virachola) dinomenes Grose-Smith]
Deudorix dinomenes Grose-Smith, 1887: 65. Trimen and Bowker, 1889 [1887-1889] 3: 391. Aurivillius, 1898: 309; 1921 [1908-1925]: 375. Murray, 1935: 63. Swanepoel, 1953: 161; pi. 7, figs. 31, 32.
l = Deudorix licina [recte licinia] (Mabille, 1878): de Fleury, 1926: 140 (Dinguiraye and Boffa, Guinea).
The name dinomenes (otherwise a species of southeastern Africa) is included on the basis of Aurivillius' (1898, 1921 ) record of a specimen from Sierra Leone in the Staudinger collection. The name licinia, used by de Fleury, is a synonym of batikeli Boisduval, a species endemic on Madagascar (see Stempffer, 1954d: 221), but it resembles dinomenes in appearance and may refer to the same species.
With no specimens for comparison and study it is impossible to know to what species these names refer. If it is truly dinomenes, then it is a striking disjunct, though of a type with some precedent. Such experienced lepidopterists as Aurivillius and P. I. Lathy (who checked de Fleury's lycaenids) would hardly have thus misdetermined livia. Whatever it may be it has not yet been taken in Liberia but may very well occur in the inland savanna patches.

Deudorix dinomenes, the orange playboy, is a butterfly of the family Lycaenidae. It is found in Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa.

The wingspan is 24–30 mm for males and 26–32 mm for females. Adults are on wing year-round with a peak from April to July.

The larvae probably feed on the fruit of Deinbollia species