Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea) of Mount Kilimanjaro: family Pieridae, subfamily Pierinae
Author
Liseki, Steven D.
Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute, Arusha, Tanzania; & School of Anthropology and Conservation, Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK;
Author
Vane-Wright, Richard I.
School of Anthropology and Conservation, Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK; & Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, London, UK; & Geographical and Life Sciences, Canterbury Christ Church University, Canterbury, UK
text
Journal of Natural History
2014
2014-04-28
48
25 - 26
1543
1583
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00222933.2014.886343
journal article
10.1080/00222933.2014.886343
1464-5262
5193830
Colotis danae eupompe
(Klug, 1829)
Larsen 1996
: pl. 7, figs 62 i–iii.
d’ Abrera 1997: 81
(3 figs). SI: Figures
10g
–j; 11a–h.
Forewing length: male 22.5–27.0 mm (mean (
n
= 6)
24.48 mm
,
SD
= 1.217); female 21.0–26.0 mm (mean (
n
= 8)
23.01 mm
,
SD
= 1.490).
Usage of the name
Papilio danae
Fabricius, 1775
, for this species has recently been conserved (Opinion 2279).
Kielland (1990)
included Tanzanian populations under the subspecies
C. d.
pseudacaste
(Butler, 1876)
, but
Nazari et al. (2011)
have recently synonymized this taxon under the older name
C. d. eupompe
(Klug, 1829), a decision followed here.
Records.
For
Tanzania
,
Kielland (1990
, p.57) described this butterfly as common in deciduous woods and shrubland at
500–1700 m
, with records from
Kigoma
, Mpanda,
Rukwa
Basin, Ufipa Plateau, lower parts of Northern Highlands, Nguu Mts, Uluguru Mts, Mikumi NP, Ruaha NP,
Dodoma
area, and Rubeho Mts south to Chimala. Included here as a member of the lower slopes fauna on the basis of many specimens from Taveta and
Kilimanjaro
in BMNH, and additional material from Taveta in OUMNH.
Butler (1888
, p.92) recorded
C. danae
from the slopes of
Kilimanjaro
under the synonym
Teracolus
miles
Butler, 1883, as well as under the name
T. pseudacaste
. Beyond
Tanzania
, this subspecies extends to
Ethiopia
and west along the southern fringes of the Sahara to
Mauritania
and
Senegal
(
Ackery et al. 1995
, p.187); the species as a whole occurs in almost all of Africa, and through Arabia to
India
(
Larsen 1996
, p.134).
Males
sometimes have the upperside forewing tips yellow instead of red (SI: Figure 9i), but the females are more variable.
In
addition to differences in amount of black and, in some individuals, loss of red forewing tips, females are also dimorphic for white/yellow ground-colour.
Although
we have not seen yellow females from
Kilimanjaro
it seems likely that they occur there.
Loss
of forewing red tip combined with upperside white ground colour is called female form “depurpurata”; there is a specimen from
Taveta
in
OUMNH
, and one from
Kilimanjaro
in
BMNH
(SI: Figure 10c)
.
GROUP VI