''Appias epaphia'', the diverse white or African albatross, is a butterfly of the family Pieridae. It is found in Africa, south of the

Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

. The habitat consists of forests and heavy woodland. The wingspan is . Adults are on wing year-round, but mainly from March to May in southern Africa. p.340. The larvae feed on ''

Capparis ''Capparis'' is a flowering plant genus, comprising around 250 species in the family Capparaceae which is included in the Brassicaceae in the unrevised APG II system. These plants are shrubs or lianas and are collectively known as caper shrubs o ...

'' species (including ''

Capparis sepiaria ''Capparis sepiaria'', also commonly called hedge caper or wild caper bush, is a shrub that has a pantropical distribution, especially in dry deciduous forests, foothills and scrub jungles. Description ''Capparis sepiaria'' is a prickly, eve ...

''), ''

Maerua racemulosa ''Maerua racemulosa'' is a species of plant in the Capparaceae family, which is almost endemic to South Africa's coastal regions, where it is a constituent of shady forest understory and valley bushveld. They are shrubs or small trees, with most ...

'', and '' Boscia albitrunca''.

Subspecies

*''A. e. aequatorialis'' Mendes & Bivar de Sousa, 2006 (São Tomé Island) *''A. e. angolensis'' Mendes & Bivar de Sousa, 2006 (Angola) *''A. e. epaphia'' (Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo, Central African Republic, Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, western Uganda (

Bwamba Forest Semuliki National Park is a national park in Bwamba County, a remote part of the Bundibugyo District in the Western Region of Uganda that was established in October 1993. It encompasses of East Africa's only lowland tropical rainforest. It i ...

), western Kenya) *''A. e. contracta'' (Butler, 1888) (South Sudan, Ethiopia, eastern Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, north-eastern Botswana, South Africa (Limpopo Province, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape Province), Eswatini, Comoro Islands) *''A. e. orbona'' (Boisduval, 1833) (Madagascar) *''A. e. piresi'' Mendes & Bivar de Sousa, 2006 (Príncipe Island)

References

Seitz, A. ''Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde'' 13: Die Afrikanischen Tagfalter. Plate XIII 11
epaphia Butterflies of Africa Butterflies described in 1779 {{Pieridae-stub