''Acraea satis'', the east coast acraea, is a

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprise ...

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

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 ...

, KwaZulu-Natal,

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 ...

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

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

Description

''A. satis'' Ward (54 a). Wings above in the male light red-yellow or brown-yellow, in the female white and very thinly scaled. Forewing at the costal margin narrowly black, at the distal margin broadly hyaline with some black scales; the base of cellules 4 to 6 is broadly yellow (male) or white and distally bounded by the (sometimes indistinct) discal dots of these cellules; the median spot at the end of the cell is very thick and forms with the streak-like discal dots of cellules 3 to 1 b a curved transverse band; beyond the middle of the cell a black transverse band, which is often joined to the median spot. Hindwing in cellules 1 b to 7 with strigiform, thick discal dots, which form with the outer basal dots of cellules 1 a to 1 c and the median spots an irregular transverse band enclosing light spots in cellules 1 a to 2 and 4 to 6; the black marginal band broad with large yellowish or white marginal spots. Rhodesia; Zululand; German and British East Africa. This very distinct species recalls '' A. rabbaiae'' and '' zonata'' in the markings and is grouped together with them by Eltringham 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 o ...

is 55–65 mm for males and 55–70 mm for females.

Biology

Adults are on wing from September to April, with peaks in February and early March in southern Africa. There are several generations per year. The larvae feed on '' Urera hypselodendron'' and ''

Urera trinervis ''Urera trinervis'' (Hochst.) Friis & Immelman is a softly woody dioecious liane, sometimes epiphytic, climbing to 20 m, often to the canopy and hanging in festoons. It is one of some 44 species of ''Urera'' belonging to the nettle family Urtic ...

'' in eastern Africa.

Taxonomy

It is a member of the ''Acraea satis''

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
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References

External links

at Pteron
Images representing ''Acraea satis''
at Bold

satis SATIS or Station Area Traffic Improvement Scheme, is a traffic improvement project in Mumbai, India. Satis or SATIS may also refer to: * Satis (goddess) AKA Satet, the cult of deification of the floods of the Nile River in Egyptian mythology * ...

Butterflies described in 1871 Butterflies of Africa Taxa named by Christopher Ward (entomologist) {{Heliconiinae-stub