''Colotis celimene'', the lilac tip or magenta tip, 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 ...

of the family

Pieridae The Pieridae are a large family of butterflies with about 76 genera containing about 1,100 species, mostly from tropical Africa and tropical Asia with some varieties in the more northern regions of North America and Eurasia.DeVries P. J. in Levi ...

. The species was first described by Hippolyte Lucas in 1852. It is found in the

Afrotropical realm The Afrotropical realm is one of Earth's eight biogeographic realms. It includes Africa south of the Sahara Desert, the majority of the Arabian Peninsula, the island of Madagascar, southern Iran and extreme southwestern Pakistan, and the island ...

. 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 of ...

is 37–40 mm. The adults fly year round, peaking from March to May. The

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. The ...

e feed on '' Boscia albitrunca'' and ''

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.

Subspecies

The following subspecies are recognised: * ''C. c. celimene'' (H. Lucas, 1852) (Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi) * ''C. c. amina'' (Hewitson, 1866) (Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana (east), Eswatini, South Africa) * ''C. c. angusi'' Rothschild, 1921 (Niger, central and western Sudan) * ''C. c. pholoe'' (Wallengren, 1860) (Angola, western Botswana, Namibia) * ''C. c. praeclarus'' (Butler, 1886) (Ethiopia, Somalia) * ''C. c. sudanicus'' (Aurivillius, 1905) (eastern Senegal, Burkina Faso, northern Ghana, northern Nigeria, Niger to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, southern Sudan)

References

Butterflies described in 1852 celimene {{Pieridae-stub