Neptis metella (Doubleday, [1850])

Delabye, Sylvain, Maicher, Vincent, Safian, Szabolcs, Potocky, Pavel, Mertens, Jan E. J., Przybylowicz, Lukasz, Murkwe, Mercy, Kobe, Ishmeal N., Fokam, Eric B., Janecek, Stepan & Tropek, Robert, 2020, First records of 31 species of butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera) in Cameroon, with remarks on their elevational ranges, Biodiversity Data Journal 8, pp. 50543-50543 : 50543

Neptis metella (Doubleday, [1850])

Nymphalidae , Limenitidinae

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: individualCount: 1; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: scientificName: Neptismetella (Doubleday, [1850]); Location: continent: Africa; country: Cameroon; stateProvince: Southwest Region; locality: Radio Hill, Bimbia village ; verbatimElevation: 220 m; decimalLatitude: 03.9666; decimalLongitude: 09.2411; Identification: identifiedBy: Szabolcs Sáfián | Robert Tropek; dateIdentified: 2015; Event: samplingProtocol: Butterfly net; eventDate: 31/12/2014; habitat: Hilltop with disturbed lowland forest; Record Level: type: PhysicalObject; institutionID: http://grbio.org/cool/8t1f-g2z6; institutionCode: ZMJU; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen Type status: Other material. Occurrence: individualCount: 1; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: scientificName: Neptismetella (Doubleday, [1850]); Location: continent: Africa; country: Cameroon; stateProvince: Southwest Region; locality: Radio Hill, Bimbia village ; verbatimElevation: 220 m; decimalLatitude: 03.9666; decimalLongitude: 09.2411; Identification: identifiedBy: Szabolcs Sáfián | Robert Tropek; dateIdentified: 2015; Event: samplingProtocol: Butterfly net; eventDate: 08/01/2015; habitat: Hilltop with disturbed lowland forest; Record Level: type: PhysicalObject; institutionID: http://grbio.org/cool/8t1f-g2z6; institutionCode: ZMJU; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen Type status: Other material. Occurrence: individualCount: 1; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: scientificName: Neptismetella (Doubleday, [1850]); Location: continent: Africa; country: Cameroon; stateProvince: Northwest Region; locality: Lake Oku, Mount Oku ; verbatimElevation: 2,200 m; decimalLatitude: 06.1924; decimalLongitude: 10.4616; Identification: identifiedBy: Robert Tropek; dateIdentified: 2015; Event: samplingProtocol: Butterfly net; eventDate: 24/12/2009; habitat: Montane forest; Record Level: type: PhysicalObject; institutionID: http://grbio.org/cool/06zb-203s; institutionCode: IECA; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen Type status: Other material. Occurrence: individualCount: 1; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: scientificName: Neptismetella (Doubleday, [1850]); Location: continent: Africa; country: Cameroon; stateProvince: Centre Region; locality: Ebogo Forest ; verbatimElevation: 660 m; decimalLatitude: 03.3880; decimalLongitude: 11.4700; Identification: identifiedBy: Robert Tropek; dateIdentified: 2015; Event: samplingProtocol: Butterfly net; eventDate: 04/01/2012; habitat: Disturbed lowland forest; Record Level: type: PhysicalObject; institutionID: http://grbio.org/cool/06zb-203s; institutionCode: IECA; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Distribution

This species was previously known from the Guinean (from Guinea to Nigeria), Shaba, Zambezian and Sudanian biogeographic regions. Our record in Cameroon partly filled the gap in its known distribution. It was known as a relatively common species in many disturbed lowland forests in the surrounding countries ( Larsen 2005), thus its occurrence in Cameroon is not surprising. Three of the four reported specimens were collected in disturbed lowland forests (220 and 660 m a.s.l.), corresponding to the known species’ habitats ( Larsen 2005). On the other hand, its occurrence at 2,200 m a.s.l. has evidenced the species as a habitat generalist (Fig. 32 ).

Figures

Figure 32. Neptis metella (Doubleday, [1850]). A. dorsal view; B. ventral view. The scale bar represents 1 cm.