| Dark palm forester | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Nominate morph female Kakum National Park, Ghana | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Nymphalidae |
| Genus: | Bebearia |
| Species: | B. mardania |
| Binomial name | |
| Bebearia mardania | |
| Synonyms | |
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Bebearia mardania, the dark palm forester, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, western Cameroon and the Republic of the Congo. [2] The habitat consists of forests.
In the male the hindwing and the basal half of the forewing are dark red-brown and the apical half of the forewing blackish with broad, sharply defined yellow subapical band; the postdiscal spots are on the forewing more or less distinctly ringed with yellow or whitish and on the hindwing posteriorly indistinct; transverse bands 2 and 3 are suppressed or very indistinct in the red-brown part. In the female the hindwing and the basal half of the forewing are brown-yellow and the apical half of the forewing black with broad white subapical band and white rings or marginal spots to the postdiscal spots; in the brown-yellow colour only the submarginal line and the postdiscal spots of the hindwing stand out distinctly. — Pupa glossy green with yellowish dorsal spine and transverse band on the third abdominal segment and small yellowish elevations on the following segments; spiracles black. Gold Coast to Angola and Uganda; common. [3]
The larvae feed on Phoenix reclinata , Hyphaene thebaica the Borassus palm and the coconut palm.
