Acraea insularis is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found on the island of São Tomé.[3] The species was first named in 1893 by Emily Mary Bowdler Sharpe.

Acraea insularis
Figures 6 and 7
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Nymphalidae
Genus: Acraea
Species:
A. insularis
Binomial name
Acraea insularis
Synonyms
  • Acraea (Actinote) insularis

Description

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A. insularis E. Sharpe. Forewing above black-brown with a yellow transverse spot in the middle of the cell and a similar orange-yellow spot at its apex, an orange-yellow spot in the basal part of 2, a free, crescentic, small spot in 1 b near the distal margin and three small orange-yellow subapical spots in 4-6, of which the one in 4 is placed nearer to the distal margin and quite free. The hind wing above at the base blackish as far as vein 2, then with a broad median band about 5 mm. in breadth, at the inner margin and towards the base light yellow, distally orange-yellow, projecting almost rectangularly distad in cellule 4 (almost as in johnstoni) and adorned with black discal dots; the hindwing beneath light yellowish to the base with free black dots and beyond the middle with a broad blackish transverse band, which is separated from the distal margin by a fine light line; this light marginal line is broken up into small spots by the dark veins and the streaks on the internearal folds. Island of Sao Thome. [4]

Taxonomy

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


References

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  1. ^ Sharpe, E.M. 1893. Descriptions of new species of butterflies from the island of St. Thomas, West Africa. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1893: 553-558.
  2. ^ "Acraea Fabricius, 1807" at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms
  3. ^ Pyrcz, T.W. (1992). "Rain Forests of São Tomé and Príncipe: Butterflies and Conservation" (PDF). Tropical Lepidoptera. 3 (2): 95–100.
  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
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