Acraea rabbaiae

Clear wing acraea
In Seitz's Fauna Africana XIII, Taf. 53
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Nymphalidae
Genus:	Acraea
Species:	A. rabbaiae
Binomial name
Acraea rabbaiae Ward, 1873 [1] [2]
Synonyms
Acraea (Acraea) rabbaiae Acraea mombasaeGrose-Smith, 1889

Acraea rabbaiae, the clear wing acraea, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found in KwaZulu-Natal, Eswatini, from Mozambique to Kenya and in Tanzania.

Description

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

A. rabbaiae Ward (53 a). Fore wing diaphanous with a black basal dot in 1 b and with discal dots in (1 a) 1 b to 6, 10 and 11, which beneath are united with one another and with a spot in the apex of the cell, forming a black transverse band; the veins at the distal margin black and in cellules 4 to 7 bordering large but indistinct light yellowish marginal spots. Hindwing very thinly scaled, whitish, with black, light yellow- spotted marginal band 2 to 3 mm. in breadth and entirely without other markings. Delagoa Bay to British East Africa and Rhodesia. - mombasae Smith only differs in having the hindwing and partially also the forewing scaled with very light brown-yellow instead of white and the discal dots of the forewing smaller and often indistinct. German East Africa. ^[3] The wingspan is 45–52 mm for males and 55–65 mm for females.

Subspecies

• Acraea rabbaiae rabbaiae (coast of Kenya, coast of Tanzania, northern Mozambique)
• Acraea rabbaiae perlucidaHenning & Henning, 1996 (Malawi, southern Mozambique, eastern Zimbabwe, Eswatini, South Africa: Mpumalanga, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal)

Biology

Adults are on wing year-round, with peaks from September to June and from March to June. ^[4]

The larvae feed on Tryphostemma zanzibaricum and Schlechterina mitostemmatoides .

Taxonomy

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

References

1. Ward, C. 1873 Descriptions of new species of African lepidoptera. Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine 10: 151-152.
2. "Acraea Fabricius, 1807" at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms
3. Aurivillius, [P.O.]C. 1908-1924. In: Seitz, A. Die Grosschmetterlinge der Erde Band 13: Abt. 2, Die exotischen Grosschmetterlinge, 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 .
4. Woodhall, Steve (2005). Field Guide to Butterflies of South Africa. Cape Town, South Africa: Struik. ISBN   978-1-86872-724-7.
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 rabbaiae Archived 2017-02-25 at the Wayback Machine at Bold
• Images representing Acraea rabbaiae perlucida at Bold Archived 2017-02-25 at the Wayback Machine
• Acraea rabbaiae Archived 2020-01-27 at the Wayback Machine at Pteron