Acraea acrita

Acraea acrita, the fiery acraea, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found in large parts of Africa.

Acraea acrita
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Nymphalidae
Genus: Acraea
Species:
A. acrita
Binomial name
Acraea acrita
Hewitson, 1865
Synonyms
  • Acraea (Acraea) acrita
  • Acraea acrita ab. pauperata Thurau, 1903
  • Acraea acrita ab. aquilia Thurau, 1903
  • Acraea acrita f. chaeribulula Strand, 1911
  • Acraea acrita ab. aquilina Strand, 1911
  • Acraea acrita f. msamwiae Strand, 1911
  • Acraea acrita f. lindica Strand, 1911
  • Acraea acrita ab. usaramensis Strand, 1911
  • Acraea acrita f. nyassicola Strand, 1911
  • Acraea acrita littoralis Eltringham, 1912
  • Acraea acrita f. megaspila Le Cerf, 1927
  • Acraea acrita acrita f. albomaculosa Le Doux, 1931
  • Acraea acrita acrita f. fusca Le Doux, 1932
  • Acraea acrita acrita f. nigromarginata Le Doux, 1932
  • Acraea ambigua Trimen, 1891
  • Acraea acrita var. bella Weymer, 1901

The wingspan is 45–55 mm. Adults are on wing year round, with a peak from February to June in southern Africa.[1]

The larvae feed on Passifloraceae, including Adenia species.

Subspecies
  • Acraea acrita acrita (Uganda, southern Kenya, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, South Africa)
  • Acraea acrita ambigua Trimen, 1891 (Zambia, southern Angola, Botswana, northern Namibia)

Taxonomy

Acraea acrita is the nominate member of the Acraea acrita species group. The clade members are:

gollark: I disagree with autoformatters. I like formatting my code as bizarrely and stupidly as I want.
gollark: UPDATED UPDATE: LyricLy is now reduced in classification to class-22H due to Incident 20200805-α.
gollark: UPDATE: He has been reclassified as a class-29P apionomoformic entity.
gollark: NOTICE: LyricLy is now classified as a class-27P apionomoform.
gollark: There are, in the comments, techniques to make it smaller which may make it actually fit.

References
  1. Woodhall, Steve (2005). Field Guide to Butterflies of South Africa. Cape Town, South Africa: Struik. ISBN 978-1-86872-724-7.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.