Coeliades chalybe, the blue policeman, is a butterfly in the family Hesperiidae. It is found in Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, from Equatorial Guinea to Angola and to Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. The habitat consists of primary and secondary forests.

Adults of both sexes feed at flowers on forest edges or along forest roads. Adult males also feed from bird droppings.

Coeliades chalybe

The larvae feed on Theobroma cacao, Cynanchum, Acridocarpus (including Acridocarpus smeathmanni) and Marsdenia species.

Coeliades chalybe

Subspecies

Coeliades chalybe chalybe (Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea to Uganda, western Kenya, northern Tanzania, and Angola) Coeliades chalybe immaculata Carpenter, 1935 (south-western Ethiopia)

Coeliades chalybe

References

Butterflies described in 1852

Coeliadinae