Acraea pharsalus

Acraea pharsalus, the east African forest acraea or Pharsalus acraea, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Ethiopia, Angola, Zambia and Mozambique.[2] The habitat consists of forests and riverine vegetation in Guinea savanna.

Acraea pharsalus
Kakamega Forest, Kenya
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Nymphalidae
Genus: Acraea
Species:
A. pharsalus
Binomial name
Acraea pharsalus
Ward, 1871[1]
Synonyms
  • Acraea (Actinote) pharsalus
  • Acraea pharsalus f. duplicatus Stoneham, 1943
  • Acraea pharsaloides Holland, 1892
  • Acraea pharsalus saluspha Suffert, 1904
  • Acraea pharsalus var. pharsaloides ab. pallidepicta Strand, 1911
  • Acraea pharsalus var. pharsaloides ab. nia Strand, 1911
  • Acraea pharsalus f. ruperti O'Neil, 1919

Adults have been recorded from July to September.

The larvae feed on Theobroma cacao, Tectona grandis, Ficus exasperata, Ficus aspersifolia, Ficus sycomorus, Laportea peduncularis, Fleurya ovalifolia and Boehmeria species.

Subspecies
  • Acraea pharsalus pharsalus (Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea: Bioko and Annobon, Angola, northern Democratic Republic of the Congo, southern Sudan, Uganda, western Kenya, Tanzania, northern Zambia)
  • Acraea pharsalus carmen Pyrcz, 1991 (Equatorial Guinea: island of Príncipe)
  • Acraea pharsalus pharsaloides Holland, 1892 (eastern Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique)
  • Acraea pharsalus rhodina Rothschild, 1902 (Ethiopia, Sudan: south to the Boma plateau)

References
  1. "Acraea Fabricius, 1807" at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms
  2. "Afrotropical Butterflies: Nymphalidae - Tribe Acraeini". Archived from the original on 2012-08-10. Retrieved 2012-06-05.


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