Dixeia charina subsp. liliana, (Grose-Smith, 1889)

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 : 1569-1570

D. charina liliana (Grose-Smith, 1889)

Pennington 1978: 525, figs 626: i–viii, 626a: i,ii (10 figs of other subspecies). d’ Abrera 1997: 105 (5 figs of other subspecies, plus at least one (yellowish) female of charina liliana misidentified as D. doxo costata ). SI: Figures 30i,j, 31a–h.

Forewing length: male 23–27.5 mm (mean (n = 7) 25.47 mm, SD = 1.110); female 21–25.5 mm (mean (n = 7) 23.97 mm, SD = 1.268) [all based on material from Taveta in BMNH] .

Note: Due to similar and widely overlapping exophenotypic variation, routine identification/separation of this species and the next, Dixeia doxo (Godart) , is frequently difficult. This has given rise to confusion in the literature regarding the correct allocation of the various subspecies into which they have been subdivided. The two species can only be separated reliably by dissection ( Carcasson 1981, p.30). However, according to Bernardi (1954), the subspecies now grouped under D. doxo are widespread in central and western parts of Africa, whereas those grouped as D. charina have a distinctly eastern distribution, including southeast Ethiopia, northern Kenya, Kenya coast, Madagascar and South Africa – but in various places representatives of the two “exerges” ( Bernardi 1958) apparently fly together, including parts of western Kenya and South Africa. In Tanzania the two species, as they are now regarded, appear to overlap in the Gregory Rift region, around Lake Manyara ( Cordeiro 1990; Moehlman and Liseki 2003).

Records. Kielland (1990, p.63) listed only one subspecies of D. charina from Tanzania: D. c. dagera (Suffert, 1904), stating that it was restricted to “coastal areas”. Bernardi (1954) was unable to examine the genitalia of dagera but, judging by its eastern provenance, it should belong to charina (and could even be a synonym of D. c. liliana). Ackery et al. (1995, p.211) also noted dagera as the only D. charina representative from Tanzania, regarding D. c. liliana as a subspecies limited to eastern and coastal areas of Kenya ( Ackery et al. 1995, p.212; Larsen 1996, p.144). However, within Tanzania D. charina has been recorded from Kilimanjaro by Aurivillius (1910a, p.11), Rau Groundwater Reserve and Karanga River, just to the south of Moshi by Cordeiro (1995, as D. c. liliana), Taveta (Aurivillius 1910c, p.47; Rogers 1913, p.98, both as liliana), Lake Manyara National Park ( Cordeiro 1990, as D. c. liliana), and Ngorongoro ( Kielland 1980, p.158). There is extensive material in OUMNH, including specimens collected at Taveta by Rogers, identified as “ D. doxo liliana ” – all of which fits the current concept of D. charina liliana . We have dissected a male from Taveta collected by Wiggins (received on loan from OUMNH), and this clearly exhibits the eastern “charina” genital phenotype ( Bernardi 1954). On this basis, together with several specimens from Taveta and a specimen from Old Moshi in BMNH, we include this butterfly as a member of the Kilimanjaro lower slopes fauna. Further work is, however, desirable (see discussion under D. doxo ).

If we are correct (below) in attributing Kielland’ s records of D. doxo costata to D. c. liliana, then in the Kilimanjaro area liliana is a savannah and forest edge butterfly that occurs from near sea level up to about 1200 m. Female specimens in the BMNH from Taveta have a greater or lesser number of scattered black scales on the hindwing underside (SI: Figure 31a–h). These Taveta specimens include at least one illustrated (doubtfully) by d’ Abrera (1997) as D. doxo costata . Variation in this taxon includes supposed “dry season” males (f. “transiens” Talbot), in which the upperside wing veins are far less blackened than in the more commonly encountered wet season forms, and whitish versus yellowish female morphs.