Acraea alicia (Sharpe, 1890)

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 : 2540

Acraea alicia (Sharpe, 1890)

Larsen 1996: pl. 53, fig. 665i,ii. d ’ Abrera 1997: 155 (1 fig.). Bernaud and Murphy 2014: 6 (2 figs, as A. bonasia f. alicia ). SI: Figure 29a – d.

Forewing length: male 15.5 – 20.0 mm [mean (n = 10) 17.66 mm, SD = 1.125]; female 17.5 – 22.0 mm [mean (n = 10) 19.04 mm, SD = 1.052].

Regarded by Eltringham (1912) as a subspecies of A. bonasia (Fabricius, 1775) , and only doubtfully distinct by Aurivillius (1913, p. 263). Following Berger (1981), A. alicia is now generally considered separate. The two species, similar and variable in upperside colour pattern, appear to be sympatric in parts of central Africa (e.g. Uganda). However, in eastern Tanzania and Kenya separation should not be a problem because A. bonasia is not considered to occur in this region. A single specimen illustrated by Bernaud and Murphy (2014) from Malawi as ‘ A. bonasia (f. alicia ) ’ is clearly of the alicia phenotype. A syntype of Telchinia alicia Sharpe in NHMUK is from Kibwezi, southern Kenya, which lies about 100 km north-east of Kilimanjaro.

Males are on average smaller, but both sexes vary in size, with considerable overlap. Males can sometimes be difficult to separate from females without careful examination of genitalia and/or forelegs. In females the hindwing upperside usually has conspicuous subtriangular interneural pale spots along the hindwing margin; in males these spots are generally wanting or poorly developed.