Bebearia mardania
| Dark palm forester | |
|---|---|
| Nominate morph female Kakum National Park, Ghana | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Nymphalidae |
| Genus: | Bebearia |
| Species: | B. mardania
|
| Binomial name | |
| Bebearia mardania | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Bebearia mardania, the dark palm forester, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, western Cameroon and the Republic of the Congo.[2] The habitat consists of forests.
In the male the hindwing and the basal half of the forewing are dark red-brown and the apical half of the forewing blackish with broad, sharply defined yellow subapical band; the postdiscal spots are on the forewing more or less distinctly ringed with yellow or whitish and on the hindwing posteriorly indistinct; transverse bands 2 and 3 are suppressed or very indistinct in the red-brown part. In the female the hindwing and the basal half of the forewing are brown-yellow and the apical half of the forewing black with broad white subapical band and white rings or marginal spots to the postdiscal spots; in the brown-yellow colour only the submarginal line and the postdiscal spots of the hindwing stand out distinctly. — Pupa glossy green with yellowish dorsal spine and transverse band on the third abdominal segment and small yellowish elevations on the following segments; spiracles black. Gold Coast to Angola and Uganda; common.[3]
The larvae feed on Phoenix reclinata, Hyphaene thebaica the Borassus palm and the coconut palm.
Taxonomy
It is a part of the Bebearia mardania species complex[4]
References
- ^ "Bebearia Hemming, 1960" at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms
- ^ Afrotropical Butterflies: Nymphalidae - Tribe Adoliadini
- ^ Aurivillius, [P.O.]C. 1908-1924. In: Seitz, A. Die Grosschmetterlinge der Erde Band 13: Abt. 2, Die exotischen Grosschmetterlinge, Die afrikanischen Tagfalter, 1925, 613 Seiten, 80 Tafeln (The Macrolepidoptera of the World 13).Alfred Kernen Verlag, Stuttgart. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ W. N. Holmes, 2001 A reappraisal of the Bebearia mardania complex (Lepidoptera Nymphalidae) June 2001 Tropical Zoology 14(1):31-62 DOI:10.1080/03946975.2001.10531142
- Media related to Bebearia mardania at Wikimedia Commons
- Data related to Bebearia mardania at Wikispecies