''Neptis saclava'', the spotted sailer, 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 native to

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

and to large areas of

sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

. Its wingspan is 40–45 mm in males and 45–48 mm in females The hindwing beneath at the base with whitish ground-colour and numerous irregular light red-brown spots, more or less joined together; cell of the forewing above unicolorous or with small white dots, beneath white with irregular light red-brown markings; discal spot 4 of the forewing is absent or very small, dot-like; the hindmarginal spot of the forewing is. large and touches the spot in cellule 2 or is only narrowly separated from it; the median band of the hindwing is 4—-7 mm. in breadth. MadagascarAurivillius, .O.. 1908-1924. In: Seitz, A. ''Die Großschmetterlinge der Erde'' Band 13: Abt. 2, ''Die exotischen Großschmetterlinge, Die afrikanischen Tagfalter'', 1925, 613 Seiten, 80 Tafeln (The Macrolepidoptera of the World 13).Alfred Kernen Verlag, Stuttgart.Images BOLD
Adults are on the wing year round with a peak from December to May. The larvae feed on '' Acalypha glabrata'', '' Combretum bracteosum'', ''

Ricinus communis ''Ricinus communis'', the castor bean or castor oil plant, is a species of perennial flowering plant in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae. It is the sole species in the monotypic genus, ''Ricinus'', and subtribe, Ricininae. The evolution of ca ...

'', '' Australina'', and ''

Pilea ''Pilea'', with 600–715 species, is the largest genus of flowering plants in the nettle family (botany), family Urticaceae. It is distributed throughout the tropics, subtropics, and warm temperate regions (with the exception of Australia and N ...

''.

Subspecies

Recognised subspecies:"''Neptis'' Fabricius, 1807"
at Markku Savela's ''Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms'' *''N. s. saclava'' – Madagascar *''N. s. marpessa'' Hopffer, 1855 – small spotted sailer, native to southern Nigeria, Cameroon to Ethiopia to Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Eswatini, South Africa: Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape only differs rom ''s.saclava''a little in the narrower median band of the hindwing and the smaller, more widely sepa¬ rated, white spots on the forewing.

Taxonomy

It is a member of the '' Neptis metella''

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 ...

References

saclava Butterflies described in 1833 Butterflies of Africa Taxa named by Jean Baptiste Boisduval {{Limenitidinae-stub