Colotis daira jacksoni (Sharpe, 1890)

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 : 1550

Colotis daira jacksoni (Sharpe, 1890)

Larsen 1996: pl. 7, figs 68 i, ii. d’ Abrera 1997: 83 (1 fig.). SI: Figure 7a–h.

Forewing length: male 12.0– 19.5 mm (mean (n = 6) 16.72 mm, SD = 2.133); female 14.0–19.0 mm (mean (n = 8) 16.21 mm, SD = 1.299).

Records. North East Tanzania ( Kielland 1990, p.56) and eastern Kenya. Neither Kielland (1990) nor Larsen (1996) gives an altitude range, but the latter described it as “a typical savannah species” ( Larsen 1996, p.135). Included here as a member of the lower slopes fauna on the basis of material from Taveta and a single female from Kilimanjaro in BMNH. Recorded from Taveta by Rogers (1913, p.99).

Males vary in the amount of black, and females are notably variable in ground colour, named forms including “jacksoni” (male-like: whitish with orange apical tip to upperside forewing), “arusa” (yellow with upperside orange tip) and “flavidus” (yellow without upperside orange tip). Beyond East Africa, this small species occurs from Arabia to Nigeria ( Ackery et al. 1995, p.186).