Acraea parrhasia

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Yellow-veined acraea
Eltringham1912TransEntSocLondPlate4, 3 Acraea parrhasia parrhasia.jpg
Eltringham1912TransEntSocLondPlate6, 3 Acraea parrhasia parrhasia.jpg
A. p. parrhasia, imago and
larva in Eltringham (1912)
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Nymphalidae
Genus: Acraea
Species:
A. parrhasia
Binomial name
Acraea parrhasia
(Fabricius, 1793) [1] [2]
Synonyms
  • Papilio parrhasiaFabricius, 1793
  • Acraea (Actinote) parrhasia
  • Acraea servonaGodart, 1819
  • Acraea leona var. parrhoppidiaStaudinger, 1896
  • Acraea parrhasia f. pseudoppidiaStrand, 1914
  • Acraea lycoidesBoisduval, 1836
  • Acraea dejanaGodman and Salvin, 1890
  • Acraea cerceis rhodinaRothschild & Jordan, 1905
  • Acraea servona f. rubraEltringham, 1912
  • Acraea servona tenebrosaEltringham, 1912
  • Acraea servona f. digitataCarpenter, 1935
  • Acraea servona tenebrosanaAckery, 1995
  • Acraea cerceis var. subochreataGrünberg, 1910
  • Acraea oppidiaHewitson, 1874
  • Acraea circeis var. orientisAurivillius, 1904
  • Acraea cerceis ab. depunctellaStrand, 1911
  • Acraea cerceis ab. unipunctellaStrand, 1911
  • Acraea cerceis ab. semipunctellaStrand, 1911
  • Acraea cerceis ab. transiendaStrand, 1911

Acraea parrhasia, the yellow-veined acraea, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae which is native to sub-Saharan Africa.

Contents

Range

It is found in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia. [3]

Description

A. parrhasia F. (57 a, 59 e) is so similar in the male to the preceding species [ Acraea peneleos ] that it is sufficient to mention the differences. Fore wing semitransparent only at the margins, at the base and on the veins with dense blackish scaling, in 1b and in 2 an elongate, reddish-scaled spot; the spot in 1b is often continued towards the base as a reddish stripe; the cell usually with two separated reddish spots; spots in cellules 3-6 diaphanous; on the underside of the fore wing the margins and the median are scaled with yellow; the under surface of the hindwing is almost uniform yellow without dark marginal band and with the proximal ends of the marginal streaks free. The female is similar to the male but has the fore wing more obtuse with more indistinct and more elongate reddish spots and with whitish-scaled spots in cellules 4-6, it differs from peneleos female in the absence of the dark marginal band on the underside of the hindwing. Larva brown with very long black spines and light lateral line. Pupa light-coloured with the normal black markings; dorsal spots on the abdomen broadly separated, quadrate with light median dot; segments 2-7 with well developed obtuse projections. Sierra Leone to the Cameroons.

A. servona. Median band on the upperside of the hindwing distally more or less rounded, nearly always lemon-yellow to sulphur-yellow; the streaks on the folds of the hindwing beneath are of uniform breadth and reach the distal margin; base of the hindwing above darkened at most to vein 2; forewing with transparent spots in cellules 1-6 and the apex of the cell, the spots in cellules 1b and 3 are sometimes indistinct or entirely absent; beneath the black parts of the upperside are light yellow to red-brown.

Biology

The habitat consists of forests.

The larvae feed on Urtica species (including U. rigida ) and Dioscorea smilacifolia .

Subspecies

Taxonomy

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

References

  1. Fabricius, J.C. 1793. Entomologia Systematica emendata et aucta 3 (1): [vi], 1-488. Hafniae.
  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