Appias (Glutophrissa) epaphia contracta ( Butler, 1888 )

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 : 1563-1564

Appias (Glutophrissa) epaphia contracta ( Butler, 1888)

Larsen 1996: pl. 10, figs 96 i,ii [as subsp. orbona ]. d’ Abrera 1997: 107 (2 figs). SI: Figure 24a–f.

Forewing length: male 24–29.5 mm (mean (n = 9) 26.97 mm, SD = 1.758); female 22–30 mm (mean (n = 10) 26.53 mm, SD = 1.883).

Records. In Tanzania this butterfly is found in forests and woodlands at altitudes from sea level to 2100 m in the eastern half of the country inland to the northern highlands (including the Usambaras and North Pare Mts), Nguru Mts, Morogoro, Mikumi, Udzungwas, Rubeho Mts, parts of central Tanzania, and Tukuyu, together with more isolated populations in western Tanzania ( Kielland 1990, p.64). Cordeiro (1990) found this taxon in Lake Manyara National Park. Recorded here from the lower slopes of Mt Kilimanjaro on the basis of three old males in BMNH collected by F.J. Jackson, and one specimen collected in a forested area of the southern slopes in June 1988 ( Cordeiro 1995). More widely this subspecies occurs throughout eastern and southern Africa, and on the Comoros, with the species as a whole occurring west to Senegal, and on Madagascar, where it can be segregated as A. e. orbona (Boisduval, 1833) ( Ackery et al. 1995, p.214) .

Males are very similar to those of the next species ( A. sabina ) but, according to Larsen (1996, p.146), are usually separable by their smaller size (not borne out by our limited data) and the slightly less extensive black apical area of the forewing. Females are usually black and white, with a distinctive broad hindwing dark border, but paler and some yellowish forms also occur which lack the very broad hindwing margin. According to van Son (1949: figs 102–105) there are small but distinct differences between the male and female genitalia of both species. Notably, the juxta of A. epahia is smaller and narrower than that of A. sabina and, in the female, the anterior apophyses are likewise much narrower.