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.
| Clear wing acraea | |
|---|---|
| |
| In Seitz's Fauna Africana XIII, Taf. 53 | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Nymphalidae |
| Genus: | Acraea |
| Species: | A. rabbaiae
|
| Binomial name | |
| Acraea rabbaiae | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Description
editA. 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
edit- Acraea rabbaiae rabbaiae (coast of Kenya, coast of Tanzania, northern Mozambique)
- Acraea rabbaiae perlucida Henning & Henning, 1996 (Malawi, southern Mozambique, eastern Zimbabwe, Eswatini, South Africa: Mpumalanga, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal)
Biology
editAdults 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
editIt is a member of the Acraea satis species group - but see also Pierre & Bernaud, 2014 [5]
References
edit- ^ Ward, C. 1873 Descriptions of new species of African lepidoptera. Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine 10: 151-152.
- ^ "Acraea Fabricius, 1807" at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms
- ^ 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.
- ^ Woodhall, Steve (2005). Field Guide to Butterflies of South Africa. Cape Town, South Africa: Struik. ISBN 978-1-86872-724-7.
- ^ Pierre & Bernau, 2014 Classification et Liste Synonymique des Taxons du Genre Acraea pdf
External links
edit
- Images representing Acraea rabbaiae at Bold
- Images representing Acraea rabbaiae perlucida at Bold
- Acraea rabbaiae Archived 2020-01-27 at the Wayback Machine at Pteron
 | This Heliconiinae article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |