''Acraea abdera'', the Abdera 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 comprises ...

in 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 re ...

. It is found in

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean to its south and southwest. It ...

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in Ghana–Ivory Coast border, the west, Burkina ...

Togo Togo (), officially the Togolese Republic (french: République togolaise), is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of G ...

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; th ...

, Equatorial Guinea, Sudan,

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The south ...

and the Republic of the Congo .

Description

Very close to ''

Acraea cepheus ''Acraea cepheus'', the Cepheus acraea, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Africa, from Nigeria and Angola to Uganda, western Tanzania and Zambia. Description ''A. cepheus'' L. (54 f) differs from all the African Acraeids ...

'' qv.

Subspecies

*''Acraea abdera abdera'' (eastern Nigeria, Cameroon, Bioko, Sudan, Uganda) *''Acraea abdera eginopsis'' Aurivillius, 1899 (Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, western Nigeria)

Biology

The habitat consists of forest edges. Both sexes

mud-puddle Mud-puddling, or simply puddling, is a behaviour most conspicuous in butterflies, but occurs in other animals as well, mainly insects; they seek out nutrients in certain moist substances such as rotting plant matter, mud and carrion and they suc ...

in hot, dry weather. The larvae feed on ''

Caloncoba gilgiana ''Caloncoba'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Achariaceae Achariaceae is a family of flowering plants consisting of 32-33 genera with about 155 species of tropical herbs, shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) i ...

'', ''

Caloncoba glauca ''Caloncoba'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Achariaceae. Its native range is Tropical Africa. Species: *''Caloncoba brevipes'' *''Caloncoba crepiniana'' *''Caloncoba echinata'' *''Caloncoba flagelliflora'' *''Calon ...

'' and ''

Oncoba spinosa ''Oncoba spinosa'', the snuff-box tree, fried egg tree or fried-egg flower, is a plant species in the genus '' Oncoba''. It is a small to medium-sized deciduous tree (usually no more than 5m in height) that has simple leaves. The blossoms are w ...

''.

Taxonomy

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

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 ...

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

External links

Images
at

Bold In typography, emphasis is the strengthening of words in a text with a font in a different style from the rest of the text, to highlight them. It is the equivalent of prosody stress in speech. Methods and use The most common methods in ...

''Acraea abdera abdera'' and ''Acraea abdera eginopsis''
at Pteron Butterflies described in 1852 abdera {{Heliconiinae-stub