Lycoa acraea | |
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Female imagos of the race A. lycoa entebbia from Kibale Forest, Uganda | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Lepidoptera |
Family: | Nymphalidae |
Genus: | Acraea |
Species: | A. lycoa |
Binomial name | |
Acraea lycoa | |
Synonyms | |
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Acraea lycoa, the lycoa acraea, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae which is native to the African tropics and subtropics.
It is found in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Bioko, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia. [3]
A. lycoa is a very variable species nearly allied to johnstoni ; it differs from this in having the light basal or median area of the hindwing distally rounded or occasionally entirely absent. The fore wing has normally 5-7 white or whitish spots, in the male sometimes dull and very indistinct; the first is placed in 1b close to the distal margin and is quite free and rounded or partly joined to the spot in 2, but never extends so far basad as the latter; the third is placed in 4 near to the distal margin quite free or touching the spot in 5; the spots in 5 and 6 are of equal length, joined to one another and to small spots in cellules 8 and 9; the cell always unicolorous without spots.
The habitat consists of forests.
The larvae feed on Theobroma cacao , Pouzolzia guineensis , Pouzolzia parasitica , Aneilema and Fleurya species.
It is a member of the Acraea jodutta species group – but see also Pierre & Bernaud, 2014 [5]