Acraea Mirabilis
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''Acraea mirabilis'', the marvelous acraea, is a
butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...
in the family
Nymphalidae The Nymphalidae are the largest family of butterflies, with more than 6,000 species distributed throughout most of the world. Belonging to the superfamily Papilionoidea, they are usually medium-sized to large butterflies. Most species have a red ...
. It is found in
Somalia Somalia, , Osmanya script: ๐’ˆ๐’๐’‘๐’›๐’๐’˜๐’•๐’–; ar, ุงู„ุตูˆู…ุงู„, aแนฃ-แนขลซmฤl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...
, south-eastern
Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, แŠขแ‰ตแ‹ฎแŒตแ‹ซ, รtiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
and north-eastern
Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...
.


Description

''A. mirabilis'' Btlr. is a very distinct species and differs from all others in the under surface of the hindwing, but is evidently best attached to this subgroup as an aberrant form. Both wings above dark orange-yellow nearly to the distal margin, costal margin of the fore wing and distal margin of both wings narrowly black; the veins at the distal margin black; the forewing with a black transverse spot at the end of the cell and in cellules 4 to 6 with a light yellowish subapical spot, broadly margined with black at both sides; the forewing beneath grey instead of blackish at the costal and distal margins. On the under surface of the hindwing the discal dots are streak-like and united into a somewhat curved line, which distally bounds the basal area; the basal area is grey between the basal and discal streaks, with reddish stripes at least in la to lc, 4, 5, 7 and the cell; between the discal streaks and the marginal band runs an unspotted light yellow to whitish median band 1 to 2 mm. in breadth; the marginal band is about 3 mm. in breadth, proximally bounded by a black line and has a greenish or bluish grey ground-colour; the small marginal spots are scarcely lighter than the ground colour, broader than long and proximally bounded by shallow black lunules; between these lunules and the proximal edge of the marginal band runs in each cellule a broad reddish streak. The marginal spots are thus formed as in the species of the following subgroups; from these, however, ''mirabilis'' differs in the absence of the discal dots of the forewing. Somaliland.


Taxonomy

''Acraea mirabilis'', with its sister-species ''Acraea miranda'', is a member of the ''Acraea natalica''
species group In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...
. See also ''Acraea caecilia'' species group and Pierre & Bernaud, 2014 Pierre & Bernau, 2014 Classification et Liste Synonymique des Taxons du Genre ''Acraea'
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References

Butterflies described in 1886 mirabilis Taxa named by Arthur Gardiner Butler Butterflies of Africa {{Heliconiinae-stub