Colotis, Hubner, 1819

Liseki, Steven D. & Vane-Wright, Richard I., 2014, Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea) of Mount Kilimanjaro: family Pieridae, subfamily Pierinae, Journal of Natural History 48 (25 - 26), pp. 1543-1583 : 1545-1546

Genus Colotis

Colotis is a large and complex genus, with well over 40 recognized species in the Afrotropical Region. The recent work by Nazari et al. (2011) represents a quantum shift in understanding both the limits and interrelationships of these phenotypically very variable insects. To make it easier to appreciate the recent changes, we have adopted the informal scheme of nine numbered species-groups proposed by Nazari

et al. (2011), listing the species within each alphabetically. Group I does not appear to be represented among the butterflies of the Kilimanjaro massif .

GROUP II

The taxonomy of this group presents sufficient difficulties that it is necessary to offer some clarification. Talbot (1939), in his revisional account of the genus, placed all taxa belonging to this group within a single Indo-African polytypic species, Colotis eucharis (Fabricius, 1775) . Unfortunately the name eucharis Fabricius is a junior primary homonym of Papilio eucharis Drury, 1773 . Colotis eucharis (Fabricius) has been replaced by its junior synonym Colotis aurora (Cramer, 1780) (see Ackery et al. 1995). Both eucharis and aurora were based on material from the Indian subcontinent, and without doubt apply to the same species.

According to Nazari et al. (2011), the group is now seen as divisible into four species: the Asian Plain Orange Tip [ C. aurora (Cramer, 1780) ], the African Plain Orange Tip [ C. evarne (Klug, 1829) ], the Yellow Orange Tip [ C. incretus (Butler, 1881) ] and the Sulphur Orange Tip [ C. auxo (Lucas, 1852) ] – this last being divisible into two “ecological” subspecies, C. auxo auxo (“coastal forests and the bushveld”) and C. auxo dissociatus (“savannah habitats”). Although this may be correct, previously every major work relevant to understanding the members of this group found within Tanzania has employed the various available names differently. These changes in the major works referred to in this paper are tracked by Table 2. In addition, we have tried to interpret the important commentary of Bernardi (1989).