Danaus dorippus

Danaus dorippus, the dorippus tiger, is a butterfly belonging to the danaine group of the brush-footed butterflies family.

Dorippus tiger
Danaus dorippus from Erythrea, mounted specimen
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Insecta
Order:
Lepidoptera
Family:
Nymphalidae
Tribe:
Danaini
Genus:
Danaus
Species:
D. dorippus
Binomial name
Danaus dorippus
(Klug, 1845)[1]
Synonyms
  • Euploea dorippus Klug, 1845
  • Limnas dorippus
  • Danaus chrysippus aegyptius f. dorippus
  • Danaus (Anosia) chrysippus f. dorippus
  • Danaus chrysippus dorippus
  • Limnas klugii Butler, 1886
  • Danaus chrysippus dorippus ab. evanescens Storace, 1949

Systematics and taxonomy

Danaus dorippus was formerly regarded as a subspecies of Danaus chrysippus, the plain tiger or African monarch. It is now regarded as a distinct species. It appears (from analysis of mtDNA sequences, which are only inherited from the mother) that the dorippus tiger is the product of an ancient lineage of Danaus hybridizing with plain tiger females.[2] As the plain tiger is known to be parasitized at least occasionally by Spiroplasma bacteria which selectively kill off male hosts,[3] a subsequent scarcity of plain tiger males might have led to this hybridization and the evolution of the dorippus tiger. From the color pattern of this species, it can be assumed that the ancient lineage had no black apex on the forewings, as this character is still absent in D. dorippus.

Description

Danaus dorippus is a medium-sized butterfly with a wingspan of about 60–80 millimetres (2.4–3.1 in). The body is black with a few white spots. The wings are tawny and have a thin border of black enclosing a series of semicircular white spots. The hindwing has three or four black spots around the center.

This species is mimicked (Batesian mimicry) by the females of Hypolimnas misippus, form inaria,[4] that has orange forewing tip with white spotting.

Distribution

This species can be found in eastern and southern Africa (mainly in Kenya, Uganda, Erythrea, Oman, Tanzania) and sporadically in India.[5]

Footnotes
  1. "Afrotropical Butterflies: Nymphalidae - Subtribe Danaina". Archived from the original on 2012-04-26. Retrieved 2012-05-29.
  2. Smith et al. (2005)
  3. Jiggins et al. (2000)
  4. The study of mimicry (Batesian and Müllerian) by temperature experiments on two Tropical butterflies
  5. "Forms of Danaus chrysippus on Himlaya" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-04-26. Retrieved 2011-12-18.
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References
  • Smith, David A.S.; Lushai, Gugs & Allen, John A. (2005). A classification of Danaus butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) based upon data from morphology and DNA. Zool. J. Linn. Soc. 144(2): 191–212. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2005.00169.x (HTML abstract)
  • Jiggins, F.M.; Hurst, G.D.D.; Jiggins, C.D.; Schulenburg, J.H.G.v.D. & Majerus, M.E.N. (2000). The butterfly Danaus chrysippus is infected by a male-killing Spiroplasma bacterium. Parasitology 120(5): 439–446. doi:10.1017/S0031182099005867 (HTML abstract)


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