Catopsilia florella (Fabricius, 1775)

General information:

Papilio Florella Fabricius, 1775: 479. Type locality: Sierra Leone Type: Syntypes: 1 in coll. NHM, London, 2 specimens in coll. Fabricius, ZMUC (Kristensen & Karsholt 2007)

Synonyms, misspellings, wrong determinations, etc.: The following list follows Savela (2015). Papilio gnoma Fabricius, 1775: 828. Type locality: India [probably Sri Lanka]. Subspecies. Colias pyrene Swainson, 1821: pl. 51. Type locality: unknown. Junior subjective synonym of Catopsilia florella florella (Fabricius, 1775). Callidryas hyblaea Boisduval, 1836: 612-613. Type locality: Senegal. Junior subjective synonym of Catopsilia florella florella (Fabricius, 1775). Callidryas rhadia Boisduval, 1836: 617. Type locality: Senegal, Mauritius. Junior subjective synonym of Catopsilia florella florella (Fabricius, 1775). Pontia marcellina Bertoloni, 1850: 178. Type locality: unknown. Junior subjective synonym of Catopsilia florella florella (Fabricius, 1775). Catopsilia aleurona Butler, 1876: 489. Type locality: Abyssinia [Ethiopia]. Junior subjective synonym of Catopsilia florella florella (Fabricius, 1775). Catopsilia rufosparsa Butler, 1880: 395. Type locality: Madagascar. Subspecies or junior subjective synonym of Catopsilia florella florella (Fabricius, 1775). Callidryas swainsoni Westwood, 1881: 335. Type locality: Zimbabwe. Junior subjective synonym of Catopsilia florella florella (Fabricius, 1775). Catopsilia florella ab. subpyrene Strand, 1911: 220. Type locality: Tanzania. Infrasubspecific name. Catopsilia ornata Dufrane, 1947: 62. Type locality: Sikkim, Tonkin. Junior subjective synonym of Catopsilia florella florella (Fabricius, 1775). Catopsilia florella florella f. inornata Dufrane, 1947: 62. Infrasubspecific name. Catopsilia florella florella ab. biannulata Dufrane, 1947: 62. Infrasubspecific name. Catopsilia florella florella ab. houzeaui Dufrane, 1947: 63. Infrasubspecific name. Catopsilia florella -f. peregrina Stoneham, 1957: [2]. Type locality: Kenya. Infrasubspecific name. Catopsilia florella -f. duplicata Stoneham, 1957: [2]. Type locality: Kenya. Infrasubspecific name. Catopsilia florella -f. wandriana Stoneham, 1957: [2]. Type locality: Kenya. Infrasubspecific name.

Habit:

: Kenya, 45 km south of Mombasa, near Diani, 1994.01.10, leg. R. & G. Lettner, coll. Michael Kurz	: without data	underside: Kenya, 45 km south of Mombasa, near Diani, 1994.01.10, leg. R. & G. Lettner, coll. Michael Kurz	underside: without data
Picture from: Kurz Michael Detailed view	Picture from: Kurz Michael Detailed view	Picture from: Kurz Michael Detailed view	Picture from: Kurz Michael Detailed view

Description of adults: Examined: 1 , 2 . Wing expanse: 62.6 mm, 58.7-63.4 mm. : Forehead with dirty white and umber brown, distant scales; back of the head with similar, but shorter scaling, with embedding of 3 triangular spots of black scales; palpi only slightly overlapping head, bent upwards, smoothly scaled whitish to light orange-brown; eyes large, semiglobular, brown; antennae about 2/5 of forewing length, light reddish grey-brown; collar black, with long white, hair-like scales; thorax black, also with long white, hair-like scales, but scaling not very dense; upperside of wings uniformly greenish-white except for a small discal spot and a delicate line at apex of forewing, both brown; underside of forewing greenish-white in posterior half, anterior half, like the complete hindwing underside, light ochreous, with very short, delicate, undulate, more orange-brown cross-lines; underside of thorax distantly scaled greenish-white, legs light ochreous; abdomen smoothly scaled, greenish-white. : Similar to ; Scaling of head also brownish; ground colour of upperside greenish-white, towards margin also yellowish, sometimes completely dull yellow; brow discal spot distinctly larger than in ; brown margin along costa and apex of forewing and, in small, partly indistinct triangles at distal end of veins, also along the outer margin of fore- and hindwings; underside also similar to , colouring often more yellow; discal spot at forewing mostly distinct, with light core; at discus of hindwing 2-3 more or less distinct, reddish-grey spots with white core; delicate brown cross-lines mostly distincter than in , partly mixed reddish-grey; apex and small triangles at distal end of veins often reddish-grey, indistinct; distal end of veins with minute reddish-grey spot.

Distribution:

The species is distributed throughout Africa south of the Saharan desert, on the Canary Islands, the Cape Verde Islands, Madagascar, Réunion, Mauritius and from Egypt and Israel to India and China (Tolman & Lewington 1998, D´Abrera 1982). Its occurance in Indo-China and Thailand however, is doubtful (D´Abrera 1982). On Sri Lanka, the Andamans and the Nicobares, ssp. gnoma is present.

Biology:

: without data	: without data
Picture from: wikimedia commons: rachidH (CC BY NC 2.0) Detailed view	Picture from: wikimedia commons: rachidH (CC BY-NC 2.0) Detailed view

Stages in development:

Larva. The larva feeds on various species of Senna (formerly placed in Cassia), among them S. occidentalis, S. floribunda, S. petersiana, S. arachoides, S. odorata, S. corymbosa and S. aschrek (Savela 2015).

Diagnosis:

Catopsilia pyranthe (Linné, 1758) has a distinctly broader and darker margin along apex and outer margin of the forewing upperside, which is accompanied by a short, submarginal dark band from apex to middle of wing in .

Worth knowing:

Sources:

D´Abrera B. 1982. Butterflies of the Oriental region, part I, Hill House, High View Road, Ferny Creek, Victoria, Australia, 244 pp. Fabricius, J. C. 1775. Systema Entomologiae, sistens insectorum classes, ordines, genera, species, adiectis synonymis locis, descriptionibus, observationibus. Flensbvrgi et Lipsiae: In Officina Libraria Kortii, 832 pp. Kristensen, N. P. & O. Karsholt 2007. Lists of primary types of Lepidoptera in the ZMUC collections. http://www.zmuc.dk/EntoWeb/collections-databaser/Lepidoptera/Lepidoptera-index.htm [online 04 March 2015]. Savela, M. 2015. Lepidoptera and some other life forms. Papilio Linnaeus, 1758. - available at: http://ftp.funet.fi/index/Tree_of_life/insecta/lepidoptera/ditrysia/papilionoidea/papilionidae/papilioninae/papilio/index.html [online 04 March 2015]. Tolman T. & R. Lewington (1998): Die Tagfalter Europas und Nordwestafrikas, übersetzt von M. Nuß, Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co., Stuttgart.

Publication data:

history: Kurz Michael: 2014.05.21 Kurz Michael: 2015.03.04 Kurz Michael: 2019.07.08

not reviewed

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