Acraea butterfly (Acraea ranavalona) mating

''Acraea ranavalona'' 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 on

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

and the

Comoros The Comoros,, ' officially the Union of the Comoros,; ar, الاتحاد القمري ' is an independent country made up of three islands in southeastern Africa, located at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean. It ...

Description

''A. ranavalona'' Bdv. (53 c, d). Forewing at the base as far as vein 2 bright red (male) or almost completely hyaline (female); hindwing with grey, often semitransparent, red-spotted marginal band, the red marginal spots proximally bounded by sharply defined black submarginal dots; basal and discal dots distinct; ground-colour beneath white, above in the male bright red, in the female white or whitish. Madagascar and Comoros. - female ab. ''manandaza'' Ward (53 d). Ground-colour of the hindwing more or less reddish. Madagascar - ab. ''maransetra'' Ward. The discal dots of the hindwing united into a transverse band. Madagascar.

Biology

The habitat consists of forests. The colours in life may be much brighter than those shown in early collections and in museums.

Taxonomy

It is a member of the ''

Acraea terpsicore Acraea (Ancient Greek: means 'of the heights' from ''akraios'') was a name that had several uses in Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. *Acraea, the naiad daughter of the Potamoi, river-god Asterion (god), Asterion near Mycenae, who tog ...

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 ...

- but see also Pierre & Bernaud, 2014 Pierre & Bernau, 2014 Classification et Liste Synonymique des Taxons du Genre ''Acraea'
pdf
/ref> *''Acraea'' (group ''ranavalona'') ''ranavalona''; Henning, 1993, ''Metamorphosis'' 4 (1): 11 *''Acraea'' (''Acraea'') (group ''neobule'') ''ranavalona''; Pierre & Bernaud, 2013, ''Butterflies of the World'' 39: 5, pl. 15, f. 8-10

References

External links

Images representing ''Acraea ranavalona''
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 of ''Acraea ranavalona'' at Le Site des Acraea de Dominique Bernaud
Butterflies described in 1833 ranavalona {{Heliconiinae-stub