Belenois gidica (Godart, 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 : 1567

Belenois gidica (Godart, 1819)

Larsen 1996: pl. 8, figs 74 i,ii. d’ Abrera 1997: 99 (7 figs). SI: Figure 28a–j.

Forewing length: male 28–35 mm (mean (n = 8) 30.89 mm, SD = 1.853); female 26.5–31 mm (mean (n = 5) 28.74 mm, SD = 0.932).

Ackery et al. (1995) accepted the former division of this species into three subspecies, but Kielland (1990), Larsen (1996) and d’ Abrera (1997) all rejected this arrangement, and it is not followed here.

Records. According to Kielland (1990, p.61), found in most parts of Tanzania at altitudes from near sea level to 2100 m, it has since been recorded at 3000 m on Mount Kilimanjaro ( Liseki 2009). The BMNH collection includes four males and five females from Kilimanjaro (including two from Loitokitok), one of the males having been collected in W. Kilimanjaro at 5000 ft (Cooper). At times a common butterfly, irregular and relatively minor migrations are known to occur ( Larsen 1996). Seasonally very variable, with distinct wet-season and dry-season forms ( Kielland 1990; Pringle et al. 1994, p.296), B. gidica occurs throughout much of the Afrotropical Region, although it is absent from southwestern Cape Province ( South Africa), Madagascar, Seychelles and the Mascarene Islands ( Ackery et al. 1995).

On the upperside males are invariably white in ground colour, and relatively constant in pattern. On the hindwing underside, however, they are either white or yellowish-white with black markings, or largely suffused with mid-brown and divided by a long whitish fascia (dry-season f. “abyssinica”; intermediates occur). Females vary in upperside ground colour from white (male-like) through whitish-yellow to yellow, and vary greatly in the extent of the dark markings – rarely they are almost entirely infuscated. On the underside, females vary in the same way as males.