Acraea Neobule

''Acraea neobule'', the wandering donkey acraea, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Sub-Saharan Africa and south-western Arabia.

Description

''A. neobule'' Dbl. and Hew. (53 f). Forewing above thinly scaled with light orange- yellow or ochre-yellow as far as the discal dots in 4 to 6 and in addition often at the distal margin in cellules 5 to 8, otherwise in the apical part hyaline; a spot beyond the middle of the cell, a transverse streak at the end of the cell and the discal dots often distinct, the discal dots in 2 and 3, however, not seldom wanting. Hindwing on both surfaces orange-yellow with distinct discal dots, of which the one in 4 is nearer to the distal margin than the rest; marginal band 1 to 1.5 mm. in breadth with rounded light marginal spots. Throughout South and East Africa to Angola, Zimbabwe, Sudan and Ethiopia.- ''seis'' Feisth. has the fore wing scaled wdth yellow in cellules 1 a to 2 as far as the distal margin and in cellules 3 to 8 distinct yellow marginal spots and consequently only in cellules 3 to 6 a hyaline subapical band; occasionally the yellow is replaced by black-grey or dark brown, especially in the female. Senegal to Nigeria, particularly in the interior. -''zambesina'' Auriv. is very similar to ''neobule'', but has the forewing completely scaled with red-yellow without diaphanous subapical area but with narrow marginal band 1 mm. in breadth, triangularly widened at the extremities of the veins; discal dots of both wings as in neobule) on the underside of the hindwing the white basal dots are smaller and of almost uniform size. Mozambique: Zumbo to the Zambezi River. -''arabica'' Rbl. completely agrees above with the race ''seis'', but differs from all the ''neobule''forms in having the basal dots on the underside of the hindwing smaller and placed quite free; marginal spots of the hind wing small and elongate almost as in ''horta''. South Arabia

The wingspan is 48–55 mm for males and 50–56 mm for females.

Subspecies

*''Acraea neobule'' subsp. ''neobule''
:Range: Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Burkina-Faso, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Mali, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo, Central African Republic, Angola, DRC, Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini, Lesotho, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman
*''Acraea neobule'' subsp. ''legrandi'' Carcasson, 1964
:Range: Seychelles

Biology

Adults are on the wing year round, but are more common from September to April.

The larvae feed on ''Passiflora edulis'', ''Passiflora incarnata'', ''Adenia gummifera'' and ''Hybanthus'' species.

Taxonomy

It is a member of the ''Acraea terpsicore'' species group. But 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 representing ''Acraea neobule''
at Bold
Images representing ''Acraea neobule neobule'' at Bold
at Pteron

necoda
Butterflies described in 1847
Butterflies of Africa
Taxa named by Edward Doubleday

{{Heliconiinae-stub