Acraea cinerea

Grey acraea
Imago of A. c. alberta, illustrated in Eltringham (1912)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Nymphalidae
Genus:	Acraea
Species:	A. cinerea
Binomial name
Acraea cinerea Neave, 1904 [1] [2]
Synonyms
Acraea (Actinote) cinerea Acraea cinerea albertaEltringham, 1911

Acraea cinerea, the grey acraea, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae which is native to East Africa.

Range

It is found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia. ^[3]

Description

For a key to the terms used, see Glossary of entomology terms.

A. cinerea Neave. Fore wing diaphanous without a trace of definite spots, at the costal margin and at the apex more or less dusted with grey. Hindwing above uniform black, beneath at the base with a large dark red area, which extends to the apex of the cell and the inner margin; basal dots feebly developed; fore wing beneath dark red at the base of the costal margin. British East Africa: Tiriki Hills (5000 ft.).

• alberta Eltr. (60 e) differs in the hindwing having above a large, elongate carmine-red spot, which covers the base of cellules 7-2, the middle of cellule 1c and the apex of the cell. To the west of Lake Albert & Edward. ^[4]

Subspecies

• Acraea cinerea cinerea — Democratic Republic of the Congo: east to northern Kivu, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, western Tanzania, Zambia
• Acraea cinerea luluaeBerger, 1981 — Democratic Republic of the Congo: south to Lualaba

Taxonomy

It is a member of the Acraea masamba species group – but see also Pierre & Bernaud, 2014 ^[5]

References

1. Neave, S.A. 1904. On a large collection of rhopalocera from the shores of the Victoria Nyanza. Novitates Zoologicae 11: 323-363.
2. "Acraea Fabricius, 1807" 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 2012-06-05.
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. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
5. Pierre & Bernau, 2014 Classification et Liste Synonymique des Taxons du Genre Acraea pdf Archived 2014-11-12 at the Wayback Machine

External links

• Images representing Acraea cinerea luluae at Bold