Acraea lycoa

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Lycoa acraea
Lycoa acraea (Acraea lycoa).jpg
Lycoa acraea (Acraea lycoa) underside.jpg
Female imagos of the race A. lycoa entebbia from Kibale Forest, Uganda
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Nymphalidae
Genus: Acraea
Species:
A. lycoa
Binomial name
Acraea lycoa
Godart, 1819 [1] Paris. [2]
Synonyms
  • Acraea (Actinote) lycoa
  • Planema fallaxRogenhofer, 1891
  • Acraea kilimandjaraOberthür, 1893
  • Acraea lycoa aequalisRothschild & Jordan, 1905
  • Acraea lycoa bukobaEltringham, 1911
  • Acraea lycoa entebbiaEltringham, 1911
  • Acraea lycoa keniaEltringham, 1911
  • Acraea lycoa mediaEltringham, 1911
  • Acraea lycoa tirikaEltringham, 1911
  • Acraea lycoa f. eltringhamiSchouteden, 1919
  • Acraea johnstoni f. praelongataJoicey & Talbot, 1927
  • Acraea lycoa mediafraStoneham, 1936
  • Acraea lycoa bukoba ab. bipunctataDufrane, 1945
  • Acraea lycoa stonehamid'Abrera, 1980
  • Acraea johnstoni praelongataHancock & Heath, 1988
  • Acraea johnstoni praelongata f. albimaculosaHancock & Heath, 1988
  • Acraea lycoa f. kinduaAckery, 1995

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

Contents

Region

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]

Description

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.

Eltringham1912TransEntSocLondPlate6, 8 Acraea lycoa lycoa.jpg
Late instar larva of A. l. lycoa from Lagos, Nigeria, in Eltringham (1912)
Acraealycon.jpg
Imago of A. l. media from Cameroon

Biology

The habitat consists of forests.

The larvae feed on Theobroma cacao , Pouzolzia guineensis , Pouzolzia parasitica , Aneilema and Fleurya species.

Taxonomy

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

References

  1. Godart J.-B. in Latreille, P. A., & Godart, J.-B. [1819] Encyclopedie Methodique Histoire Naturelle [Zoologie] 9 Entomologie: i-iv, 1-328
  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.PD-icon.svg 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