Libythea labdaca

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African Snout Butterfly
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Nymphalidae
Genus: Libythea
Species: L. labdaca
Binomial name
Libythea labdaca
Westwood, 1851[1]
Synonyms
  • Libythea laius Trimen, 1879

Libythea labdaca the African Snout Butterfly is a member of the butterfly subfamily Libytheinae found in Western and Central Africa.

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 Celtis kraussiana and C. sayauxii).

Subspecies

  • Libythea labdaca labdaca (Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Bioko, Sao Tome & Principe, Angola, Democratic Republic of 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, Swaziland)

References

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.

External links


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