''Libythea labdaca'', the African snout butterfly, is a member of the butterfly subfamily

Libytheinae The Libytheinae are a nymphalid subfamily known as snout butterflies, containing two valid genera and about ten species: six in ''Libythea'' and four in '' Libytheana''. The common name refers to the thick labial palps (pedipalps) that look like ...

found in western and central

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 ...

. It forms vast migratory swarms (over 1 billion butterflies were estimated in

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

). The butterflies move south in the spring and north in the autumn. The larvae feed on ''

Celtis ''Celtis'' is a genus of about 60–70 species of deciduous trees, commonly known as hackberries or nettle trees, in the hemp family Cannabaceae. It has a cosmopolitan distribution. Description ''Celtis'' species are generally medium-sized tree ...

'' species (including '' C. kraussiana'' and '' C. sayauxii''). African beak (Libythea labdaca labdaca) 2.jpg, Bobiri Forest,

African beak (Libythea labdaca labdaca) underside 2.jpg, Bobiri Forest,

African beak (Libythea labdaca labdaca) puddling.jpg, puddling, Bobiri Forest,

Subspecies

*''Libythea labdaca labdaca'' (Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Bioko, São Tomé and Príncipe, Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, western Kenya, western Tanzania) *''Libythea labdaca laius'' Trimen, 1879 (Ethiopia, eastern Kenya, eastern and northern Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Angola, Mozambique, eastern Zimbabwe, northern Botswana, South Africa, Eswatini)

References

Sources

*Kawahara, A. Y. 2006. Biology of the snout butterflies (Nymphalidae, Libytheinae), Part 1: Libythea Fabricius. ''Transactions of the Lepidopterological Society of Japan'' 57:13-33. * , 2013: Systematic revision and review of the extant and fossil snout butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Libytheinae). ''Zootaxa'' 3631 (1): 1-74. preview

External links

''Libytheana'' page at Tree of Life
Butterflies described in 1851 Libythea Taxa named by John O. Westwood Butterflies of Africa {{Nymphalidae-stub