Acraea egina

Acraea egina

Museum specimen of Acraea egina
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Nymphalidae
Genus:	Acraea
Species:	A. egina
Binomial name
*Acraea egina* (Cramer, 1775)^[1]
Synonyms
Papilio egina Cramer, 1775 Acraea (Acraea) egina Papilio rudolphina Herbst, 1792 Papilio persephone Fabricius, 1793 Acraea zidora Godart, 1819 Acraea khara Grose-Smith, 1889 Acraea egina f. contraria Grünberg, 1910 Acraea egina f. alba Eltringham, 1913 Acraea egina intensa Stoneham, 1937 Acraea egina f. tenuimarginatus Stoneham, 1937 Acraea egina f. rubristriatus Stoneham, 1937 Acraea egina bellehui Carcasson, 1961 Acraea areca Mabille, 1889 Acraea harrisoni Sharpe, 1904

Acraea egina, the Elegant Acraea, is a species of butterfly in the Nymphalidae family.

Subspecies

Acraea egina egina (Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo, Central African Republic, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, southern Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia, western Kenya, northern Zambia)
Acraea egina areca Mabille, 1889 (Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, eastern Zimbabwe, South Africa: Limpopo Province))
Acraea egina harrisoni Sharpe, 1904 (coast of Kenya)
Acraea egina pembanus Kielland, 1990 (Pemba)

Description

The wingspan of Acraea egina can reach 60–65 millimetres (2.4–2.6 in). Wings are basically brick-red, with black spots on both fore and hind wings and a quite large black margin on the hindwing upperside. These butterflies are closely mimicked by Pseudacraea boisduvali and by Graphium ridleyanus in the shade of color, in the cut of the wings and in the pattern of markings. The larvae of Acraea egina feed on Adenia lobata and Rawsonia species. They are whitish with black rings and black tubercules, while the pupae are pinkish-brown.

Distribution

This species can be found in Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa.^[2]

Habitat

The habitats of this species mainly consists of dry forests and savannah, but it also prefers clearings and open areas in the rainforest.

Gallery

Illustration of Acraea egina figures 1,2 as Acraea khara

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Acraea egina.

Wikispecies has information related to: Acraea egina

↑ Acraea, Site of Markku Savela
↑ Afrotropical Butterflies: Nymphalidae - Tribe Acraeini

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, September 04, 2014. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.