''Catonephele acontius'', the Acontius firewing, is a

nymphalid 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 redu ...

butterfly species found in South America. It was first described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, ...

in 1771 (who gave the type location as "China", a designation followed by some later authors).

Description

(Male, described by Dru Drury): Upperside. Antennae, head,

thorax The thorax or chest is a part of the anatomy of humans, mammals, and other tetrapod animals located between the neck and the abdomen. In insects, crustaceans, and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main divisions of the ...

, and

abdomen The abdomen (colloquially called the belly, tummy, midriff, tucky or stomach) is the part of the body between the thorax (chest) and pelvis, in humans and in other vertebrates. The abdomen is the front part of the abdominal segment of the tors ...

black. Wings fine velvety black. An orange-coloured bar, about inch (6 mm) broad, rises in the middle of the superior wings, running circularly and crossing the inferior ones, meeting about the middle of the abdominal edges. Underside. Palpi white. Tongue brown. Breast and legs white. Abdomen yellow brown. Wings shining brown, exhibiting various shades of changeable colours; the tips terminating in an ash colour. Wings scarcely dentated. Wingspan inches (70 mm). Catonephele acontius MHNT male.jpg, Male Catonephele acontius MHNT.jpg, Female

Subspecies

*''Catonephele acontius acontius'' (Guianas, Surinam, Brazil: Amazonas) *''Catonephele acontius caeruleus'' Jenkins, 1985 (Bolivia)

References

Biblidinae Nymphalidae of South America Butterflies described in 1771 Descriptions from Illustrations of Exotic Entomology Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{Biblidinae-stub