Leptosia alcesta inalcesta (Bernardi, 1959)

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 : 1563

Leptosia alcesta inalcesta (Bernardi, 1959)

Larsen 1996: pl. 10, figs 98 i,ii. d’ Abrera 1997: 123 (1 fig.). SI: Figure 22a–d.

Forewing length: male 15–22 mm (mean (n = 5) 19.78 mm, SD = 2.575); female 18– 23 mm (mean (n = 5) 19.84 mm, SD = 1.509).

Records. This fragile little white butterfly occurs widely throughout Tanzania, in dense woodlands, gallery forests and rainforests, from sea level to 1850 m ( Kielland 1990, p.71). Recorded from Mt Kilimanjaro by Aurivillius (1910a, p.11), the type locality of L. a. inalcesta is New Moshi, on the southern slopes at about 800 m. A very small male in NHM is labelled “ Kilimanjaro [18]87-140”. However, this species was not encountered by Liseki (2009) in the forest reserves, from 2000 m upwards. This butterfly may survive in remnant gallery forests below the reserve area. Elsewhere the subspecies occurs from Ethiopia to South Africa, and other subspecies occupy forested areas throughout most of central and West Africa, and Madagascar ( Ackery et al. 1995, p.226).