Acraea pharsalus Ward, 1871

Liseki, Steven D. & Vane-Wright, Richard I., 2018, Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea) of Mount Kilimanjaro: Nymphalidae subfamily Helconiinae, Journal of Natural History 52 (39 - 40), pp. 2511-2552 : 2538-2539

Acraea pharsalus Ward, 1871

Larsen 1996: pl. 52, fig. 649i,ii. d ’ Abrera 1997: 149 (4 figs). Bernaud and Murphy 2014: 156 (8 figs, Malawi). SI: Figure 27a – j.

Forewing length: male 27.0 – 33.0 mm [mean (n = 8) 30.60 mm, SD = 1.358]; female 28.5 – 38.5 mm [mean (n = 11) 33.61 mm, SD = 2.925].

Note: Many authors have regarded this species as polytypic (e.g. Larsen 2005, p. 446), with the Kilimanjaro population usually included in subspecies A. p. pharsaloides Holland, 1892 – originally described from ‘ Kilimanjaro ’ ( Holland 1896 described this taxon again, also as ‘ new ’). However, Pierre and Bernaud (2014) regard this butterfly as monotypic, placing all infraspecific names, including a subspecies named in 1991 from Principe, as synonyms. At least two forms occur at Moshi (see SI Figure 27), both of which can occur in both sexes. Sexual dimorphism seems slight; in museum specimens females are paler orange than males.