''Acraea oncaea'', the window 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 ...

of the family Nymphalidae. It is found in

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locate ...

Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name Transvaal. * South African Republic (1856–1902; af, ...

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

, from eastern Africa to Abyssinia and in

Congo Congo or The Congo may refer to either of two countries that border the Congo River in central Africa: * Democratic Republic of the Congo, the larger country to the southeast, capital Kinshasa, formerly known as Zaire, sometimes referred to a ...

Description

left, 200px, Male and female in Seitz (1925) The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...

is for males and for females. ''A. oncaea'' Hpff. (55 e) is distinguished at once by the fine black submarginal longitudinal streaks in cellules 3 to 5 (to 6) of the fore wing; the discal dot in 6 is usually wanting on the fore wing. male – the forewing is thinly scaled, with dull orange-yellow ground-colour, at the base not darkened, and at the apex only black for a breadth of 2 mm.; discal dots usually small and punctiform, arranged exactly as in caecilia. Hindwing more densely scaled than the fore wing and above more reddish; its marginal band very narrow but more distinctly spotted. In the female the wings have the ground-colour above dark grey and the fore wing has a broad white subapical band from the costal margin to vein 3. South and East Africa to the southern Congo region and Abyssinia.-female ab. ''obscura'' Suff. Forewing above brown, hindwing above whitish with rose-red spots at the base, at the inner margin and behind the discal dots. -female ab. ''defasciata'' Suff. Forewing brown without white subapical band. - female ab. ''alboradiata'' Suff. has the veins of the hindwing white. -female ab. ''modesta'' Suff. Hindwing with a large white area in the middle. - ''caoncius'' Suff. is a seasonal form (?), in which the apex of the forewing above has only a fine black marginal line quite as on the under surface. German East Africa, ab. ''liacea'' Suff. only differs in having the marginal band of the hindwing not sharply defined above and composed of thick black lunules beneath. German East Africa.

Biology

Adults are on the wing year round, with a peak from September to May. There are multiple generations per year. The larvae feed on ''

Xylotheca kraussiana ''Xylotheca kraussiana'' is an African shrub or small multi-stemmed tree growing in the sandveld and widely distributed throughout the eastern parts of Southern Africa, in particular the eastern Transvaal, coastal Natal and Mozambique, preferring ...

'', ''Tricliceras longepedunculatum'' and

Passifloraceae The Passifloraceae are a family of flowering plants, containing about 750 species classified in around 27 genera. They include trees, shrubs, lianas, and climbing plants, and are mostly found in tropical regions. The family takes its name from t ...

species, including ''

Adenia ''Adenia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the passionflower family, Passifloraceae. It is distributed in the Old World tropics and subtropics.

'' species.

Taxonomy

It is a member of the ''

Acraea caecilia ''Acraea caecilia'', the pink acraea, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, the Democrati ...

'' species group. See also Pierre & Bernaud, 2014.Pierre & Bernau, 2014 Classification et Liste Synonymique des Taxons du Genre ''Acraea'
pdf
/ref>

References

External links

''Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde'' 13: Die Afrikanischen Tagfalter. Plate XIII 55
''e''
Images representing ''Acraea oncaea''
at

Bold In typography, emphasis is the strengthening of words in a text with a font in a different style from the rest of the text, to highlight them. It is the equivalent of prosody stress in speech. Methods and use The most common methods in W ...

oncaea ''Oncaea'' is a genus of copepods. The genus contains bioluminescent species. Unlike other bioluminescent copepods, ''Oncaea'' have an internal (non-secreted) bioluminescence. ''Oncaea'' contains the following species: *'' Oncaea africana'' Sh ...

Butterflies described in 1855 Taxa named by Carl Heinrich Hopffer Butterflies of Africa {{Heliconiinae-stub