Belenois creona
Species of butterfly
African common white | |
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Female in wet season | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Lepidoptera |
Family: | Pieridae |
Genus: | Belenois |
Species: | B. creona |
Binomial name | |
Belenois creona (Cramer, 1776) | |
Subspecies | |
See text | |
Synonyms | |
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Belenois creona, the African common white or African caper, is a butterfly in the family Pieridae. It is found in the Afrotropical realm.
Description
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c4/Belenois_creona-01_%28xndr%29.jpg/220px-Belenois_creona-01_%28xndr%29.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b4/African_Common_White%2C_Tanzania.jpg/220px-African_Common_White%2C_Tanzania.jpg)
The wingspan is 40–45 mm. The sexes are dimorphic.
Males
Uppersides are white with black or brown marginal borders and veins in forewing apex. There is a black spot in the upperside cell, instead of a bar as in the brown-veined white (B. aurota).
Females
Females have broader dark upperside borders on both wings. Underwings are yellow during the wet season.[1]
Ecology
The larvae feed on Capparis and Maerua species.
Subspecies
The following subspecies are recognised:[2]
- B. c. creona (Senegal to Nigeria, Sudan, east Ethiopia)
- B. c. benadirensis (in Somalia)
- B. c. boguensis Ethiopia
- B. c. elisa (on the Comoros)
- B. c. leucogyne (on the Arabian Peninsula)
- B. c. prorsus (on Madagascar)
- B. c. severina (South Africa to east Africa, Democratic Republic of the Congo)
References
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Belenois creona.
External links
- Seitz, A. Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde 13: Die Afrikanischen Tagfalter. Plate XIII 13
- Seitz, A. Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde 13: Die Afrikanischen Tagfalter. Plate XIII 12
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