Semalea pulvina Plötz 1879

Semalea pulvina (Plotz) (Fig. 69, 6 genitalia)
Hesperia pulvina Plotz. 1879b: 353 (Aburi). = Hesperia ilias Plotz, 1879b: 355 (Aburi).
= Hesperia tenebricosa Plotz, 1882: 316 (no locality cited).
= Cobalus carbo Mabille, 1889: 169 (Sierra Leone).
= Ceratrichia paucipunctata Bethune-Baker, 1908: 481 (Toro, Congo).
= Baoris ilias ab. "punctifera" Strand, 1912c: 51 (Cameroon).
This species is the most distinctive in the genus, due to the large, elliptical black brand on the upper surface of the hindwing, which separates it from any other Semalea. It is apparently a common species. Evans (1937: 120-121) reports specimens in a range bounded by Sierra Leone to Gabon and east to South Sudan, Kenya and Tanganyika.
Liberia: Harbel, 1 S , XI; Zorzor, 2 S , XI, 1 $ , XII; Wanau Forest, 1 ?, V, 1 9,X (all Fox).
The remaining specimens in Carnegie Museum are from Nigeria, Cameroon, Rio Muni, Gabon and Uganda.

Semalea pulvina, the silky dart, silky skipper or branded silky skipper, is a butterfly in the family Hesperiidae. It is found in Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, western Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, northern Zambia, Mozambique and eastern Zimbabwe. The habitat consists of forests.

Adults have been recorded feeding on blossoms of Syzygium cordatum. They are on wing from August to September and from February to May.

The larvae feed on Siphonochilus aethiopicus and Aframomum species.