Acraea medea


Acraea medea is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found on the island of Príncipe. It is also considered a subspecies of Acraea egina, Acraea egina medea.

Description

A. medea Cr. is in my opinion best treated as an independent species. The light yellow marginal spots on the underside of the forewing and the thick black submarginal line which bounds them proximally form quite a new feature, to which nothing in egina and its races corresponds. Both wings above at the base broadly black to vein 2 or 3, then as far as the sharply defined black marginal band, which is 4 to 5 mm. in breadth, yellow-red or white with very large discal dots, arranged quite as in egina; fore wing beneath reddish, at the base and in the female also in the middle light yellow or whitish; hindwing beneath in the middle greenish light yellow or whitish, at the base and at the marginal band with brown-red or orange-yellow spots. Princes Island

Taxonomy

It is a member of the Acraea egina species group - but see also Pierre & Bernaud, 2014