Acraea bonasia

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Bonasia acraea
Orange streak acraea (Acraea bonasia).jpg
Orange streak acraea (Acraea bonasia) underside.jpg
Imagos in Kakum National Park, Ghana
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Nymphalidae
Genus: Acraea
Species:
A. bonasia
Binomial name
Acraea bonasia
(Fabricius, 1775) [1] [2]
Synonyms
  • Papilio bonasiaFabricius, 1775
  • Acraea (Actinote) bonasia
  • Papilio cynthiusDrury, 1782
  • Acraea praeponinaStaudinger, 1896
  • Acraea bonasia siabonaSuffert, 1904
  • Acraea bonasia ab. implicataSchultze, 1923
  • Acraea bonasia ab. tristisSchultze, 1923
  • Acraea bonasia f. flavistrigataLe Cerf, 1927
  • Acraea bonasia bonasia ab. obscuraDufrane, 1945

Acraea bonasia, the bonasia acraea, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae which is native to the African tropics and subtropics.

Contents

Range

It is found in Senegal, the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Ethiopia. [3]

Description

A. bonasia is nearly allied both to Acraea alicia and to Acraea sotikensis and all three probably belong to one species. From alicia, which Eltringham regards only as a form of bonasia, it differs in having the base of cellule 2 of the forewing black and from sotikensis it seems to me only to differ in having the light longitudinal stripe at the median of the forewing above completely united with the hindmarginal spot. On this ground I also refer praeponina Stgr. to sotikensis.

Biology

Eltringham1912TransEntSocLondPlate6, 11 Acraea bonasia bonasia (pale form).jpg
Eltringham1912TransEntSocLondPlate6, 12 Acraea bonasia bonasia (dark form).jpg
Larvae (pale and dark forms),
illustrated in Eltringham (1912)

The habitat consists of forests.

Adult males mud-puddle and visit patches of urine and animal excrement.

The larvae feed on Clappertonia ficifolia , Triumfetta macrophilla , Triumfetta ruwenzorensis , Triumfetta brachyceras , Triumfetta and Hibiscus species.

Subspecies

Taxonomy

Acraea bonasia is the nominate member of the Acraea bonasia species group see Acraea .

Classification of Acraea by Henning, Henning & Williams, Pierre. J. & Bernaud

References

  1. Fabricius, J.C. 1775 Systema Entomologiae, sistens Insectorum Classes, Ordines, Genera, Species, Adiectis Synonymis, Locis, Descriptionibus, Observationibus 1-832
  2. Acraea at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms
  3. "Afrotropical Butterflies: Nymphalidae - Tribe Acraeini". Archived from the original on 2012-08-10. Retrieved 2012-06-04.
  4. Aurivillius, [P. O.] C. 1908-1924. In: Seitz, A. Die Großschmetterlinge der Erde Band 13: Abt. 2, Die exotischen Großschmetterlinge, Die afrikanischen Tagfalter, 1925, 613 Seiten, 80 Tafeln (The Macrolepidoptera of the World 13). Alfred Kernen Verlag, Stuttgart.PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
  5. Henning, G. A., 1993 Phylogenetic notes on the African species of the subfamily Acraeinae. Part 2-3. (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) Metamorphosis 4 (1): 5-18, (2): 53-68
  6. Pierre, J. & Bernaud, D., 2013 Nymphalidae XXIII. Acraea subgenus AcraeaButterflies of the World 39 : 1-8, pl. 1-28 Goecke & Evers
  7. Henning, G.A. & Williams, M.C. 2010 Taxonomic notes on the afrotropical taxa of the tribe Acraeini Boisduval, 1833 (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Heliconiinae) Metamorphosis 21 (1) : 2-38
  8. Pierre & Bernau, 2014 Classification et Liste Synonymique des Taxons du Genre Acraea pdf Archived 2014-11-12 at the Wayback Machine