''Acraea oncaea'', the window acraea, 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

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN) is a Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the government merged the Zulu people, Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu language, Zulu) and ...

Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name ''Transvaal''. * South African Republic (1856–1902; ...

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

, from eastern Africa to Abyssinia and in Congo.

Description

left, 200px, Male and female in Seitz (1925) 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 for males and for females. ''A. oncaea'' Hpff. (55 e) is distinguished at once by the fine black submarginal longitudinal streaks in cellules 3 to 5 (to 6) of the fore wing; the discal dot in 6 is usually wanting on the fore wing. male – the forewing is thinly scaled, with dull orange-yellow ground-colour, at the base not darkened, and at the apex only black for a breadth of 2 mm.; discal dots usually small and punctiform, arranged exactly as in caecilia. Hindwing more densely scaled than the fore wing and above more reddish; its marginal band very narrow but more distinctly spotted. In the female the wings have the ground-colour above dark grey and the fore wing has a broad white subapical band from the costal margin to vein 3. South and East Africa to the southern Congo region and Abyssinia.-female ab. ''obscura'' Suff. Forewing above brown, hindwing above whitish with rose-red spots at the base, at the inner margin and behind the discal dots. -female ab. ''defasciata'' Suff. Forewing brown without white subapical band. - female ab. ''alboradiata'' Suff. has the veins of the hindwing white. -female ab. ''modesta'' Suff. Hindwing with a large white area in the middle. - ''caoncius'' Suff. is a seasonal form (?), in which the apex of the forewing above has only a fine black marginal line quite as on the under surface. German East Africa, ab. ''liacea'' Suff. only differs in having the marginal band of the hindwing not sharply defined above and composed of thick black lunules beneath. German East Africa.

Biology

Adults are on the wing year round, with a peak from September to May. There are multiple generations per year. The larvae feed on '' Xylotheca kraussiana'', ''Tricliceras longepedunculatum'' and

Passifloraceae The Passifloraceae are a family of flowering plants, containing about 750 species classified in around 27 genera. They include trees, shrubs, lianas, and climbing plants, and are mostly found in tropical regions. The family takes its name from t ...

species, including ''

Adenia ''Adenia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the passionflower family Passifloraceae. It is distributed in the Old World tropics and subtropics.

'' species.

Taxonomy

It is a member of the ''

Acraea caecilia ''Acraea caecilia'', the pink acraea, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, the Democrati ...

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'
pdf
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References

External links

''Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde'' 13: Die Afrikanischen Tagfalter. Plate XIII 55
''e''
Images representing ''Acraea oncaea''
at Bold.

oncaea ''Oncaea'' is a genus of copepods. The genus contains bioluminescent species. Unlike other bioluminescent copepods, ''Oncaea'' have an internal (non-secreted) bioluminescence. ''Oncaea'' contains the following species: *'' Oncaea africana'' Shm ...

Butterflies described in 1855 Taxa named by Carl Heinrich Hopffer Butterflies of Africa {{Heliconiinae-stub