Peculiar behaviour of a female Alaena margaritacea (Eltringham, 1929) (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae: Poritiinae)

Abstract

<jats:p>A female Alaena margaritacea was observed using her legs to groom grass blades on a slope, the type locality, near Haenertsburg, Limpopo Province, South Africa. The behaviour was video-recorded. The article describes the behaviour’s peculiarities and stages such as reiterative grooming at blade tips. Using extant literature, it posits two hypotheses for the behaviour’s function: that it involves territorial, sexual scent-marking or that it aims to repel competing feeders such as ants by the putative use of semiochemicals.</jats:p>