| Pink acraea | |
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| Mating in Pendjari NP, the male above | |
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| A. c. pudora and related species | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Nymphalidae |
| Genus: | Acraea |
| Species: | A. caecilia |
| Binomial name | |
| Acraea caecilia (Fabricius, 1781) | |
| Synonyms | |
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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.
Description
For a key to the terms used, see Glossary of entomology terms.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.
Subspecies
- A. c. caecilia — Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, northern Nigeria, Chad, southern Sudan, northern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Uganda, western Kenya, north-western Tanzania
- A. c. kulal van Someren, 1936 — Kenya: north to Mount Kulal and Mount Marsabit
- A. c. pudora Aurivillius, 1910 — eastern Kenya, eastern and central Tanzania, northern Malawi
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.
References
- Fabricius, J.C. 1781 Species Insectorum Exhibentes Eorum Differentia Specifica, Synonyma Auctorum, Loca Natalia, Metamorphosin Adiectis, Observationibus, Descriptionibus 1-494
- "Acraea Fabricius, 1807" at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms
- "Afrotropical Butterflies: Nymphalidae - Tribe Acraeini". Archived from the original on 2012-08-10. Retrieved 2012-06-01.
- Aurivillius, 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.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- Pierre & Bernau, 2014 Classification et Liste Synonymique des Taxons du Genre Acraea pdf
External links
- Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde 13: Die Afrikanischen Tagfalter. Plate XIII 55 g ssp. pudora
- Images representing Acraea caecilia at Bold
- Acraea caecilia caecilia Archived 2020-01-27 at the Wayback Machine at Pteron
| Taxon identifiers | |
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| Acraea caecilia | |
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