Pseudopontia

Pseudopontia paradoxa
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Pieridae
Genus:	Pseudopontia Plötz, 1870
Species:	P. paradoxa
Binomial name
Pseudopontia paradoxa (R. Felder, 1869)

Pseudopontia paradoxa is a species of butterfly found only in wet forests of tropical Africa. It was traditionally thought to be the only species (monotypic) in the genus Pseudopontia and the subfamily Pseudopontiinae.

It is considered paradoxical because, despite being a true butterfly (Papilionoidea), its antennae do not have the characteristic clubbed ends which are otherwise diagnostic of butterflies (Rhopalocera).

However, a recent study showed there are at least five species of Pseudopontia which can be distinguished genetically and by details of wing veins. Each is found primarily in a different part of Africa, though several of the species have overlapping geographic distributions.

Species

• Pseudopontia paradoxa R. Felder, 1869; found in rainforests in Cameroon, Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Gabon

• Pseudopontia australis F.A. Dixey, 1923 (formerly considered a subspecies); found in Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa), Congo (Brazzaville), and eastern Gabon, usually at low elevation

• Pseudopontia gola S. Safian and K. Mitter, 2011; found in Sierra Leone and Liberia in far western Africa

• Pseudopontia mabira K. Mitter and S. Collins, 2011; found in central Africa: in Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo within about 5 degrees latitude north and south of the Equator

• Pseudopontia zambezi K. Mitter and W. De Prins, 2011; found in riverine forests in the southern African highlands: in Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, and Angola, at elevations over 800m above sea level

References

Plötz, C. (1870) Pseudopontia Calabarica n. gen. et n. sp. Stettiner Entomologischer Zeitung, 31, 348–349, 1 pl.

Felder, R. (1869) [no title]. Petites Nouvelles Entomologiques, 1, 30–31.

Felder, R. (1870) Gonophlebia (Globiceps), Paradoxa (Felder). Petites Nouvelles Entomologiques, 1, 95.

Dixey, F.A. (1923) Pseudopontia paradoxa: its affinities, mimetic relations, and geographical races. Proceedings of the Entomological Society (London), lxi–lxvii +plate B.

Mitter, K.T., Larsen, T.B., et al. (2011). The butterfly subfamily Pseudopontiinae is not monobasic: marked genetic diversity and morphology reveal three new species of Pseudopontia (Lepidoptera: Pieridae). Systematic Entomology 36: 139-163. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-3113.2010.00549.x

External links

• Pseudopontiinae, TOL
• Pseudopontia, funet.i
• [1], BOLD