Acraea camaena, the large smoky acraea, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, southern Burkina Faso, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Bioko, the Republic of the Congo and Angola (the Cabinda enclave).[3]

Acraea camaena
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Nymphalidae
Genus: Acraea
Species:
A. camaena
Binomial name
Acraea camaena
(Drury, 1773) [1][2]
Synonyms
  • Papilio camaena Drury, 1773
  • Acraea (Acraea) camaena
  • Papilio murcia Fabricius, 1781

Description edit

A. camaena Drury (53 f). Forewing unicolorous smoke-black with black median spot but otherwise entirely without markings. Hindwing beyond the middle smoke-black with large free basal and discal dots, before the marginal band yellowish; marginal band incised at the veins, deep black with white dots. Sierra Leone to Nigeria and Fernando Po. [4]

Biology edit

The habitat consists of dry forests, including open coastal forests.

Both sexes are attracted to flowers.

The larvae feed on Premna hispida and Smeathmannia pubescens.

Taxonomy edit

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

References edit

  1. ^ Drury, D. [1773]. Illustrations of Natural History 2: viii, 1-90 + 2pp. London.
  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 2012-05-30.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ Pierre & Bernau, 2014 Classification et Liste Synonymique des Taxons du Genre Acraea pdf

External links edit