Libythea labdaca explained

Libythea labdaca, the African snout butterfly, is a member of the butterfly subfamily Libytheinae found in western and central Africa.^[1]

It forms vast migratory swarms (over 1 billion butterflies were estimated in Ghana). The butterflies move south in the spring and north in the autumn.

The larvae feed on Celtis species (including C. kraussiana and C. sayauxii).

Subspecies

• Libythea labdaca labdaca (Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Bioko, São Tomé and Príncipe, Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, western Kenya, western Tanzania)
• Libythea labdaca laius Trimen, 1879 (Ethiopia, eastern Kenya, eastern and northern Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Angola, Mozambique, eastern Zimbabwe, northern Botswana, South Africa, Eswatini)

Sources

• Kawahara, A. Y. 2006. Biology of the snout butterflies (Nymphalidae, Libytheinae), Part 1: Libythea Fabricius. Transactions of the Lepidopterological Society of Japan 57:13-33.
• , 2013: Systematic revision and review of the extant and fossil snout butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Libytheinae). Zootaxa 3631 (1): 1-74. preview: http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/2013/f/z03631p074f.pdf.

External links

• Libytheana page at Tree of Life

Notes and References

1. Kawahara. A.Y.. 2013. Systematic revision and review of the extant and fossil snout butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Libytheinae). Zootaxa. 3631 . 1. 001–074. 10.11646/zootaxa.3631.1.1. 25325094 .