''Acraea petraea'', the blood acraea or blood-red 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 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 coastal forests from

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Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

and

Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast ...

. 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. petraea'' Bdv. (54 f) recalls '' A. atolmis'', from which it can be at once distinguished by the submarginal dots of the forewing. Wings above bright red to orange-yellow with the black markings strongly developed; discal dots 3 to 6 of the forewing are placed in a line vertically to the costal margin and are often enlarged and joined to the median spot; the hindwing beneath light reddish yellow with red spots between the dots and red spots or streaks before the marginal band; the discal dot in 3 seems to be always absent. The females have a broad white or whitish subapical band on the forewing and the ground-colour is often darker, reddish grey to black-grey, particularly on the forewing. The dry-season form, ''petrina'' Suff., has reddish marginal spots at the apex of the fore wing. - Larva goldy brown with black longitudinal and transverse lines and black spines; head black with white angled spot; lives on ''Oncoba kraussiana''. Pupa light brown to red-brown with black markings. - ab. ''taborana'' Suff, only differs in having the black dusting at the base of the forewing extended as far as the black dots in the cell and the discal dots of the forewing smaller. - ''rohlfsi'' Suff. (60 d). ow_species_''Acraea_rohlfsi''_.html" ;"title="Acraea_rohlfsi.html" ;"title="ow species ''Acraea rohlfsi">ow species ''Acraea rohlfsi'' ">Acraea_rohlfsi.html" ;"title="ow species ''Acraea rohlfsi">ow species ''Acraea rohlfsi'' After an exact comparison of the figures and description of this form with ''petraea'' I can only regard it as an extreme form of the latter, from which it differs in having the marginal band of the hindwing narrow and on the underside indistinct. In all other characters it agrees with ''petraea''. The difference between ''rohlfsi'' and ''petraea'' is hence almost the same as between ''atolmis'' and ''acontias'' or between ''atergatis'' and its dry-season form. I have specimens of ''petraea'' before me from German East Africa which form a distinct transition to ''rohlfsi'', having the marginal band of the hindwing scarcely more than 0.5 mm. in breadth; this is, however, distinctly defined beneath by black streaks. Ukerewe Island in Victoria Nyanza.

Biology

Adults are on wing year round, with a peak from November to February. The larvae feed on ''Xylotheca kraussiana'' and ''Xylotheca kotzei''.

Taxonomy

It is a member of the ''Acraea cepheus'' Acraea (butterfly)#Systematics and taxonomy, species group. See also Pierre & Bernaud, 2014.Pierre & Bernau, 2014 Classification et Liste Synonymique des Taxons du Genre ''Acraea'
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References

External links

Images representing ''Acraea petraea''
at Consortium for the Barcode of Life, Bold. Butterflies described in 1847 petraea Taxa named by Jean Baptiste Boisduval {{Heliconiinae-stub