Acraea egina

Acraea egina
	Museum specimen of Acraea egina
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Nymphalidae
Genus:	Acraea
Species:	A. egina
Binomial name
	Acraea egina; (Cramer, 1775)
Synonyms
	Papilio egina Cramer, 1775; Acraea (Acraea) egina; Papilio rudolphina Herbst, 1792; Papilio persephone Fabricius, 1793; Acraea zidora Godart, 1819; Acraea khara Grose-Smith, 1889; Acraea egina f. contraria Grünberg, 1910; Acraea egina f. alba Eltringham, 1913; Acraea egina intensa Stoneham, 1937; Acraea egina f. tenuimarginatus Stoneham, 1937; Acraea egina f. rubristriatus Stoneham, 1937; Acraea egina bellehui Carcasson, 1961; Acraea areca Mabille, 1889; Acraea harrisoni Sharpe, 1904;

Acraea egina, the Elegant Acraea, is a species of butterfly in the Nymphalidae family.

Subspecies

Acraea egina egina (Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo, Central African Republic, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, southern Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia, western Kenya, northern Zambia)
Acraea egina areca Mabille, 1889 (Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, eastern Zimbabwe, South Africa: Limpopo Province))
Acraea egina harrisoni Sharpe, 1904 (coast of Kenya)
Acraea egina pembanus Kielland, 1990 (Pemba)

Description

The wingspan of Acraea egina can reach 60–65 millimetres (2.4–2.6 in). Wings are basically brick-red, with black spots on both fore and hind wings and a quite large black margin on the hindwing upperside. These butterflies are closely mimicked by Pseudacraea boisduvali and by Graphium ridleyanus in the shade of color, in the cut of the wings and in the pattern of markings. The larvae of Acraea egina feed on Adenia lobata and Rawsonia species. They are whitish with black rings and black tubercules, while the pupae are pinkish-brown.