Acraea ventura

{{Short description|Species of butterfly}}

{{Speciesbox

| image = Oberthur1893EtudEnt 17Plate1.jpg

| image_caption = Figure 12

| image2 =

| taxon = Acraea ventura

| authority = Hewitson, 1877 Hewitson, W. C. 1877

Descriptions of four new species of Acraea from Lake Nyassa Ent. mon. Mag. 14 : 51-52 [http://ftp.funet.fi/pub/sci/bio/life/insecta/lepidoptera/ditrysia/papilionoidea/nymphalidae/heliconiinae/acraea/ "Acraea Fabricius, 1807"] at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms

| synonyms =

  • Acraea (Actinote) ventura
  • Acraea serena ab. melas Oberthür, 1893
  • Acraea ochrascens Sharpe, 1902
  • Acraea terpsichore var. bukoba Weymer, 1903

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Acraea ventura is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Kenya.{{Cite web |url=http://atbutterflies.com/downloads/nymphalidae_acraeini.doc |title=Afrotropical Butterflies: Nymphalidae - Tribe Acraeini |access-date=2012-06-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120810134550/http://atbutterflies.com/downloads/nymphalidae_acraeini.doc |archive-date=2012-08-10 |url-status=dead }}

Description

{{Entomology glossary hatnote}}

ventura Hew. (= bukoba Weym.) (55 a) is very similar above to a typical Acraea serena or serena form rougeti and has usually a free subapical band on the forewing, with the spots in 4 and 5 much prolonged distally; beneath the forewing has at the distal margin sharply prominent black veins and saffron-yellow streaks on the interneural folds; it is characterized by the under surface of the hindwing; this has thick, sharply defined, bright

red streaks in the cell and in cellules 1 c and 7 between the basal and the discal dots and occasionally similar streaks in other cellules also; the yellow marginal spots are very large and proximally produced into red streaks, which are much longer in cellules 1 c to 3 than in cellules 4 and 5; the proximal ends of the red streaks are connected by a dark line which bounds the light median band distally; thus the median band is not of almost uniform breadth, but in cellules 4 and 5 strongly convex towards the base. In the female the ground-colour of the upper surface is grey-yellow and the red streaks in the marginal band of the hindwing beneath are often absent. Southern Congo; Nyassaland; German and British East Africa; Uganda. - ochrascens E. Sharpe nearly agrees with ventura in markings, but has the ground-colour of both wings light yellowish white, and the subapical band of the forewing united with the ground-colour. Victoria Nyanza: Buka Bay. 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.{{PD-notice}}

Biology

The habitat consists of marshy areas.

The larvae feed on Cassia species.

Subspecies

  • Acraea ventura ventura (Malawi, southern Tanzania, northern Zambia, Democratic Republic of the Congo: Shaba, Angola)
  • Acraea ventura ochrascens Sharpe, 1902 (Democratic Republic of the Congo: Kivu, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, western Kenya, north-western Tanzania)

Taxonomy

Acraea ventura is a member of the Acraea bonasia species group; see Acraea.See also Pierre & Bernaud, 2014 Pierre & Bernau, 2014 Classification et Liste Synonymique des Taxons du Genre Acraea [http://www.acraea.com/image/liste/systematique.pdf pdf]

References

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