Acraea caecilia explained

Acraea caecilia, the pink acraea, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi.[1]

Description

A. caecilia F. is similar to the preceding species, [''[[Acraea natalica]] but on an average smaller (expanse 56 to 70 mm.) and differs in having the discal dots in cellules 4 to 6 of the forewing smaller, rounder and further removed from the apex of the cell; the forewing has 2 to 4 submarginal dots (in lb to 4). Ground-colour above light reddish yellow to salmon-colour; base of both wings and apex of the fore wing black for the same extent as in natalica; hindwing above always with sharply defined black marginal band about 2 mm. in breadth, not or indistinctly spotted; under surface as in natalica, but the red spots on the hindwing indistinct. Senegal to Nigeria; Nubia; Uganda; Abyssinia; Somaliland; British and German East Africa.- female ab. artemisa Stoll has the ground-colour above white, with the black markings much widened. West Africa ? - female ab. hypatia Drury only differs in the darker, redder ground-colour of the upper surface. Sierra Leone. - pudora Auriv. (55 g) is an eastern race, in which the black colour at the apex of the forewing is only very narrow and does not- cover the base of cellules 7 and 8. German and British East Africa. - ab. umbrina Auriv. only differs from pudora in the forewing above having between veins 2 and 5 or 6 a grey, semitransparent submarginal nebulous band.[2]

Subspecies

Biology

The habitat consists of savanna and dry thornbush.

The larvae feed on Wormskioldia (including W. pilosa) and Adenia species (including A. cissampeloides).

Taxonomy

It is a member of the Acraea caecilia species group. See also Pierre & Bernaud, 2014.[3]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Afrotropical Butterflies: Nymphalidae - Tribe Acraeini . 2012-06-01 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120810134550/http://atbutterflies.com/downloads/nymphalidae_acraeini.doc . 2012-08-10 . dead .
  2. Aurivillius, [P.O.]C. 1908-1924. In: Seitz, A. Die Grosschmetterlinge der Erde Band 13: Abt. 2, Die exotischen Grosschmetterlinge, Die afrikanischen Tagfalter, 1925, 613 Seiten, 80 Tafeln (The Macrolepidoptera of the World 13).Alfred Kernen Verlag, Stuttgart.
  3. Pierre & Bernau, 2014 Classification et Liste Synonymique des Taxons du Genre Acraea pdf