''Colotis evenina'', the common orange tip, 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

Pieridae The Pieridae are a large family (biology), family of butterflies with about 76 genera containing about 1,100 species, mostly from Afrotropical realm, tropical Africa and Indomalayan realm, tropical Asia with some varieties in the more northern ...

. It is found in the

Afrotropical realm The Afrotropical realm is one of the Earth's eight biogeographic realms. It includes Sub-Saharan Africa, the southern Arabian Peninsula, the island of Madagascar, and the islands of the western Indian Ocean. It was formerly known as the Ethiopi ...

Description and habits

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 38–45 mm in males and 35–42 mm in females. The adults fly year-round. left, ''C. evenina'' lacks discocellular dotsLarsen, Torben B., 1991: 'The Butterflies of Kenya and their Natural History' as seen here in '' C. antevippe'', besides any dark venation. The

larva A larva (; : larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into their next life stage. Animals with indirect development such as insects, some arachnids, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase ...

e feed on ''

Boscia albitrunca ''Boscia albitrunca'', commonly known as the shepherd tree or shepherd's tree (, , , , , ), is a protected species of South African tree in the caper family. It is known for having the deepest known root structure of any plant at: -. The speci ...

'' and ''

Capparis ''Capparis'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Capparaceae. It includes 142 species of shrubs or lianas which are collectively known as caper shrubs or caperbushes. ''Capparis'' species occur over a wide range of habitat in the subtr ...

'' species.

Subspecies

The following subspecies are recognised:''Colotis''
at Markku Savela's ''Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms'' *''C. e. evenina'' — Mozambique, southern and eastern Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini, Lesotho *''C. e. sipylus'' (Swinhoe, 1884) — coast of Kenya, Tanzania, northern Zimbabwe *''C. e. xantholeuca'' (Sharpe, 1904) — southern Uganda, central and south-western Kenya, central, northern and western Tanzania *''C. e. casta'' (Gerstaecker, 1871) — northern Zimbabwe, Zambia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, northern Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia

References

External links

Images representing ''Colotis evenina''
at BOLD Butterflies described in 1857 evenina Butterflies of Africa Taxa named by Hans Daniel Johan Wallengren {{Pieridae-stub