''Acraea wigginsi'', the Wiggins' 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 ...

in the family Nymphalidae which is native to tropical Africa.

Range

It is found in

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

, the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

and

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

Description

''A. wigginsi'' Neave. Forewing above blackish at the costal margin, in the apical part and at the distal margin, with a broad white subapical band in cellules 3 to 6, 9 and 10 and often also with yellow marginal spots; the cell and cellules 1a to 2 red-yellow as far as the marginal band; a black dot in the cell and a transverse spot at its apex and also discal dots in 1b to 5 or at least in 1b to 3; hindwing above golden yellow with narrow, yellow-spotted marginal band; forewing beneath as above, but lighter and at the distal margin grey with black veins; hindwing beneath light yellow with narrow white-spotted marginal band, which is proximally accompanied by gold-yellow quadrate spots, and between the discal and basal dots with an irregularly broken red transverse band, in addition with a red spot at the base of cellules 1c and 8. The female only differs in having the red-yellow colour on the forewing above less extended. Expanse 46 to 56 mm. British East Africa and

Subspecies

*''Acraea wigginsi wigginsi'' — Democratic Republic of the Congo: Ituri, Uganda, western Kenya *''Acraea wigginsi occidentalis'' Bethune-Baker, 1926 — Cameroon

Biology

The habitat consists of grassy edges of sub-montane forests at altitudes above 1,500 meters. The larvae feed on '' Cassia zambesiacus'' and ''

Kotschya strigosa ''Kotschya'' is a genus of legumes in the family Fabaceae, and was recently assigned to the informal monophyletic ''Dalbergia'' clade of the Dalbergieae. It contains the following species: * '' Kotschya aeschynomenoides'' (Baker) Dewit & P.A. ...

''.

Taxonomy

It is a member of the ''

Acraea rahira ''Acraea rahira'', the marsh acraea, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found in southern Africa. In South Africa it is found from the Western Cape along the coast to the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, then inland to Mpumalanga, Gau ...

'' 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

Butterflies described in 1904 wigginsi {{Heliconiinae-stub