Black Fairy Hairstreak

Hypolycaena nigra Bethune-Baker
? Hypolycaena hatha (in part): Hewitson, 1865 [1862-1878]: 51; pi. 23, fig. 23.
Hypolycaena nigra Bethune-Baker, 1914a: 502. Lamborn et al., 1914: 473. Aurivillius, 1922 [1908-1925]: 382; pi. 68b. Hypokopelates nigra: Eltringham, in Farquharson et al., 1922: 483; pi. 13, fig. 19 [the generic name is clearly a lapsus].
The species occurs from Sierra Leone to Uganda and south through Cameroon to Gabon; it is found also on Fernando Po. This species appears to be much less common in Upper Guinea than its close relative, H. hatha, though elsewhere the two are about equally common.
Liberia: no further data, 1 s (Good); Bigtown, 1 2 (Naysmith); Bomi Hills, 1 2 , IV; Wanau Forest, 1 $ , II (both Fox).

Hypolycaena nigra, the black fairy hairstreak, is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. It was described by George Bethune-Baker in 1914. It is found in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria (south and the Cross River loop), Cameroon, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Mongala, Uele, Ituri, Kivu, Tshopo, Tshuapa, Sankuru and Lualaba), Uganda and north-western Tanzania. The habitat consists of forests.

The larvae are associated with the ant species Pheidole aurivillii race kasaiensis. They are soft, green and onisciform (woodlouse shaped).