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''Bematistes aganice'', the wanderer, 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 southern and south-eastern
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
.


Description

''P. aganice'' Hew. (58 d) nearly approaches the preceding species 'montana'' now ''Bematistes aganice montana'' , but has a narrower transverse band on the forewing and especially a much narrower median band on the hindwing; these are in the male white-yellow or white, in the female white; the transverse band of the forewing is in the male often almost broken up into spots and the spot in cellule 1 b very small or absent; the ground-colour in fresh specimens is almost black and the sharply defined marginal band of the hindwing in both sexes is 9-11mm. in breadth; the base of the hindwing is nearly black above, dark brown beneath; thus the sexes differ but little from one another. - Larva whitish green with long yellowish spines, yellow-brown head, and blue dots dorsally and laterally. Pupa whitish green with four pairs of long light red dorsal spines as in camerunica and small divaricating horns on the head. This species in the only endemic Planema in South Africa and is distributed from Kaffirland to Zambesi; in East Africa it is represented by ''P. montana'', which is probably only a race of the same species. ''P. montana'' Btlr. (58 d ) male- forewing above blackish with a narrow orange-yellow transverse band only about 5-6 mm. in breadth, which is proximally incised especially in cellule 3, reaches vein2 and is accompanied by a usually free spot in cellule lb; the hindwing above at the base narrowly black-brown, then with broad orange-yellow median band and sharply defined blackish marginal band about 6 mm. in breadth; the under surface only differs in the somewhat paler ground-colour and the sharply defined red-brown basal part of the hindwing. The female is larger with white transverse band, 8-10 mm. in breadth, on the forewing, which, as in the male is deeply incised proximally both in cellule 3 and at vein 2, and with a white median band on the hind wing, 14-15 mm. in breadth; the marginal band of the hindwing is sharply defined, as in the and has thick black streaks on the interneural folds. Nyassaland to British East Africa. female-ab. ''meruana'' Rogenh. Transverse band of the hindwing smoky yellowish. Meru Mountain, ab. ''nicega'' Suff. has the transverse band of the forewing in the male only 2.5-3 mm. in breadth and the median band of the hindwing in the female light yellow instead of white. Nyassaland. . 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 60–65 mm for males and 70–75 mm for females.


Subspecies

*''B. a. aganice'' (Cape to KwaZulu-Natal, Transvaal, southern Mozambique, eastern Zimbabwe) *''B. a. montana'' (Butler, 1888) (from eastern Kenya to northern Tanzania) *''B. a. nicega'' Suffert (southern Tanzania, southern Zaire (Shaba), north-eastern Zambia, northern Malawi) *''B. a. nyassae'' Carpenter (southern Malawi) *''B. a. orientalis'' Ungemach (south-western Ethiopia, southern Sudan, northern Uganda) *''B. a. ugandae'' van Someren, 1936 (northern shore of Lake Victoria)


Biology

Adults are on wing year round, but are more common from the end of October to March. The larvae feed on ''
Passiflora edulis ''Passiflora edulis,'' commonly known as passion fruit, is a vine species of passion flower native to southern Brazil through Paraguay and northern Argentina. It is cultivated commercially in tropical and subtropical areas for its sweet, seedy ...
'', '' Passiflora incarnata'', ''
Passiflora caerulea ''Passiflora caerulea'', the blue passionflower, bluecrown passionflower or common passion flower, is a species of flowering plant native to South America. It has been introduced elsewhere. It is a vigorous, deciduous or semi-evergreen tendril vi ...
'' and '' Adenia gummifera''.


Taxonomy

See Pierre & Bernaud, 2014 Pierre & Bernau, 2014 Classification et Liste Synonymique des Taxons du Genre ''Acraea'
pdf
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References


External links


''Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde'' 13: Die Afrikanischen Tagfalter. Plate XIII 58
''d'' ssp. ''montana'' and nominate ''aganice''
Images representing ''Acraea aganice''
at Bold
Images representing ''Acraea aganice montana'' at Bold
Acraeini Butterflies described in 1852 {{Heliconiinae-stub