__NOTOC__ ''Acraea eponina'', the orange acraea or small orange acraea to distinguish it from the larger '' A. anacreon'', is a

butterfly Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

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 ha ...

. It is found in tropical

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

and south-western

Arabia The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world. Geographically, the ...

. The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the opposite wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingsp ...

is 35–40 mm for males and 36–44 mm for females. Adults are on wing year round, but are more common in warmer months. Natural enemies include the parasitoids '' Carcelia normula'' and '' Charops'' species and the predaceous bugs '' Afrius figuratus'', ''

Rhynocoris bicolor ''Rhynocoris'' (historically often misspelled as "''Rhinocoris''") is a genus of assassin bug, family (Reduviidae), in the subfamily Harpactorinae. Species are recorded from Asia, mainland Europe, Africa and North America. Life history Species ...

'' and other '' Rhynocoris'' species. The larvae of subspecies ''eponina'' feed on ''

Hibiscus ''Hibiscus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the Malva, mallow family, Malvaceae. The genus is quite large, comprising List of Hibiscus species, several hundred species that are Native plant, native to warm temperate, Subtropics, subtropical ...

'', '' Sida'', ''

Nicotiana ''Nicotiana'' () is a genus of herbaceous plants and shrubs in the Family (biology), family Solanaceae, that is Native plant, indigenous to the Americas, Australia, Southwestern Africa and the South Pacific. Various ''Nicotiana'' species, common ...

'', ''

Hermannia ''Hermannia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae. It comprises at least 65 species with many more species as yet unresolved. The genus commemorates Prof. Paul Hermann (1646-1695), a German professor of botany at Ley ...

'', and ''

Triumfetta ''Triumfetta'' is a genus of plants in the family Malvaceae. Burbark is a common name for plants in this genus. The genus was originally described and published by Carl Linnaeus in his book Sp. Pl. on page 444 in 1753. There are about 176 s ...

'' species. Subspecies ''manjaca'' has been reported on ''

Triumfetta rhomboidea ''Triumfetta rhomboidea'', commonly known as diamond burbark, Chinese bur, or kulutkulutan in Tagalog language, Tagalog, is a shrub that is extensively naturalised in tropical regions. It is thought that to have come to Australia from China. Its ...

'', ''

Triumfetta annua ''Triumfetta'' is a genus of plants in the family Malvaceae. Burbark is a common name for plants in this genus. The genus was originally described and published by Carl Linnaeus in his book Sp. Pl. on page 444 in 1753. There are about 176 ...

'', '' Triumfetta effusa'', '' Triumfetta pilosa'' and ''

'' species. The Acraea E.larvea is known to be a major pest to the plant Jute Mallow and can cause a loss of 25-100% of the quality of the crop harvest.

Subspecies

* ''Acraea eponina eponina'' (Tropical Africa, south-western Arabia) * ''Acraea eponina manjaca'' (Natal, Eswatini, Transvaal, Rhodesia, Mozambique). Now a synonym of ''

Acraea serena ''Acraea serena'', the dancing acraea, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found throughout Africa south of the Sahara. It is the most common of the ''Acraea'', from Dakar to Fort-Dauphin and from Yemen to the Cape. This is the type ...

Taxonomy

''Acraea eponina'' is a member of the ''Acraea bonasia''

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 ''

Acraea Acraea (Ancient Greek: means 'of the heights' from ''akraios'') was a name that had several uses in Greek and Roman mythology. * Acraea, the naiad daughter of the river-god Asterion near Mycenae, who together with her sisters Euboea and Prosy ...

''. Formerly, ''A. eponina'' was often misidentified as ''

'' or ''

Acraea terpsicore ''Acraea terpsicore'', the tawny coster, is a small, , leathery-winged butterfly common in grassland and scrub habitats. It belongs to the Nymphalidae or brush-footed butterfly family. It has a weak fluttery flight. It is avoided by most insect p ...

''.

References

External links

Images representing ''Acraea eponina''
at Bold eponina Butterflies described in 1780 Taxa named by Pieter Cramer Butterflies of Africa Butterflies of Asia {{Heliconiinae-stub