Tirumala formosa formosa Godman, 1880

Liseki, Steven D. & Vane-Wright, Richard I., 2015, Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea) of Mount Kilimanjaro: Nymphalidae subfamilies Libytheinae, Danainae, Satyrinae and Charaxinae, Journal of Natural History 50, pp. 865-904 : 870

Tirumala formosa formosa Godman, 1880

Larsen 1996: pl. 27, fig. 387 i. d ’ Abrera 1997: 187 (1 fig.). SI: Figure 3a – d.

Forewing length: male 43.5 – 52 mm [mean (n = 9) 47.19 mm, SD = 2.072]; female 43.5 – 50.5 mm [mean (n = 11) 47.10 mm, SD = 1.507].

Records

Highland forest, forest edges and forest mosaic up to 2300 m in north and northeastern Tanzania, south to Mufindi, and inland to the Rubeho Mountains, with disjunct populations to the west in Mpanda and Kigoma; also in lowland forest at Kasoge and Sanje, and common in semi-evergreen bush near Lufusi River, in the Rubehos ( Kielland 1990, p. 73). Although not specifically recorded from Kilimanjaro by Kielland (1990), and not found there by Liseki (2009), it is included here as a member of the lower slopes fauna based on Rogers ’ (1908, p. 494) record for Taveta (a corresponding specimen is extant in OUMNH), and Aurivillius ’ s (1910a, p. 2) records for the cultivated area and slopes of Kilimanjaro. Three female specimens in OUMNH were collected by W.A. Lamborn, 16 May 1916, from Arusha at c. 1400 m, in ‘ dense evergreen forest ’. The BMNH has at least nine specimens collected on West Kilimanjaro by B. Cooper, at heights up to 5000 ft, and a pair from Moshi collected by Selous. Cooper also collected this butterfly on Mt Meru, including a female at 6500 ft – so it is possible this species could extend into the lower levels of the Kilimanjaro protected forest.

Beyond Tanzania this subspecies occurs in Kenya (highlands east of Rift Valley central highlands, Nairobi, Taita Hills, Chyulu Hills, Namanga, Mt Sagala ) . In Zambia it is known from a single specimen from the Mafinga Mountains , collected by Heath, September 1981 ( Heath et al. 2002, p. 47) . The collective species comprises in total four recognized subspecies, ranging from Nigeria and Gabon east to Ethiopia and Somalia, south to Zambia ( Ackery et al. 1995, p. 270). Tirumala formosa is very distinct from all other members of the genus ( Ackery and Vane-Wright 1984), including the only other African species included.