Belenois thysa thysa (Hopffer, 1855)

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 : 1568

Belenois thysa thysa (Hopffer, 1855)

Larsen 1996: pl. 9, figs 84 i,ii,iii. d’ Abrera 1997: 97 (6 figs). SI: Figure 29e–j.

Forewing length: male 30–35.5 mm (mean (n = 8) 32.25 mm, SD = 1.431); female 31.5–37.5 mm (mean (n = 6) 33.23 mm, SD = 1.950).

Records. Larsen (1996, p.141) states for Kenya that “[this species] is less at home at altitudes above 1600 m and in wetter parts of the country.” Kielland (1990, p.62) notes subspecies thysa as common in savannah, woodlands and forest margins in eastern Tanzania, from sea level to 2600 m, but comments “not common in the northern highlands” – and it was not encountered on Kilimanjaro by Liseki (2009). Included here as a member of the lower slopes fauna on the basis of old material in BMNH from Kilimanjaro, Old Moshi and Taveta. Ackery et al. (1995, p.207), who recognized three subspecies of B. thysa , indicated that the species occurs widely throughout southern and eastern Africa, west to Angola and north to Ethiopia.

Males vary in extent of the orange-red at the base of the forewing underside and the black marginal upperside markings. The females are variable but not clearly polymorphic. The overall ground colour is usually whitish or yellowish, with the upperside forewing base dusky or pinkish, and the hindwing whitish to yellow, often basally dusky or pinkish-orange.