''Acraea rabbaiae'', the clear wing 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 ...

Eswatini Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its no ...

, from

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 ...

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

and in

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

Description

''A. rabbaiae'' Ward (53 a). Fore wing diaphanous with a black basal dot in 1 b and with discal dots in (1 a) 1 b to 6, 10 and 11, which beneath are united with one another and with a spot in the apex of the cell, forming a black transverse band; the veins at the distal margin black and in cellules 4 to 7 bordering large but indistinct light yellowish marginal spots. Hindwing very thinly scaled, whitish, with black, light yellow- spotted marginal band 2 to 3 mm. in breadth and entirely without other markings. Delagoa Bay to British East Africa and Rhodesia. - ''mombasae'' Smith only differs in having the hindwing and partially also the forewing scaled with very light brown-yellow instead of white and the discal dots of the forewing smaller and often indistinct. German East Africa. 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 45–52 mm for males and 55–65 mm for females.

Subspecies

*''Acraea rabbaiae rabbaiae'' (coast of Kenya, coast of Tanzania, northern Mozambique) *''Acraea rabbaiae perlucida'' Henning & Henning, 1996 (Malawi, southern Mozambique, eastern Zimbabwe, Eswatini, South Africa: Mpumalanga, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal)

Biology

Adults are on wing year-round, with peaks from September to June and from March to June. The larvae feed on '' Tryphostemma zanzibaricum'' and '' Schlechterina mitostemmatoides''.

Taxonomy

It is a member of the ''

Acraea satis ''Acraea satis'', the east coast acraea, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Zimbabwe, KwaZulu-Natal, Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya. Description ''A. satis'' Ward (54 a). Wings above in the male light red-yellow or brown- ...

'' species group - but 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 rabbaiae''
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 ...

Images representing ''Acraea rabbaiae perlucida'' at Bold
at Pteron rabbaiae Butterflies described in 1873 Butterflies of Africa Taxa named by Christopher Ward (entomologist) {{Heliconiinae-stub