Mesoxantha
| Mesoxantha | |
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| Illustration by Dru Drury | |
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| Genus: | Mesoxantha Aurivillius, 1898
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| Species: | M. ethosea
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| Binomial name | |
| Mesoxantha ethosea (Drury, 1782)
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Mesoxantha is a genus of nymphalid butterfly.[1] It contains only one species, Mesoxantha ethosea, commonly called Drury’s Delight. It is found in Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, the Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania and Mozambique.[2] The habitat consists of lowland forests, including secondary forests.
The larvae feed on Tragia brevipes and Malacantha alnifolia.
Description
Upper Side. Antennae black. Thorax, abdomen, and wings deep brown, almost black; the disk of the anterior being white, and extending to the shoulders, all the middle part of the posterior being white likewise.
Under Side. Palpi grey. Breast and abdomen brown. Anterior wings next the body yellowish brown, but towards the tips inclining to grey; nerves black; the disk white, with a round black spot near the body, and another of a smaller size below it. The middle of the posterior wings is white, surrounded with brown, that part along the lower edges being darkest; next the body are five distinct black round spots, and an irregular shaped one at the middle of the upper edge; along the lower edges are a number of small triangular white spots. Margins of the posterior wings slightly dentated. Wing-span 2¼ inches (57 mm).[3]
Subspecies
- Mesoxantha ethosea ethosea (Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo)
- Mesoxantha ethosea ethoseoides Rebel, 1914 (Nigeria: south and the Cross River loop, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, Central African Republic, Angola, eastern and southern Democratic Republic of Congo)
- Mesoxantha ethosea reducta Rothschild, 1918 (southern Sudan, Uganda, western Tanzania, possibly Mozambique)
References
- ^ Mesoxantha, funet.fi
- ^ Afrotropical Butterflies: Nymphalidae - Tribe Biblidini
- ^ Drury, Dru (1837). Westwood, John (ed.). Illustrations of Exotic Entomology. Vol. 3. p. 50. pl. XXXVIII.
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