Nepheronia buquetii buquetii (Boisduval, 1836)

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 : 1560

Nepheronia buquetii buquetii (Boisduval, 1836)

Larsen 1996: pl. 5 fig. 42i. d’ Abrera 1997: 71 (2 figs). SI: Figure 21a–f.

Forewing length: male 29.5–35 mm (mean (n = 6) 30.72 mm, SD = 1.588); female 31.5–36 mm (mean (n = 5) 33.30 mm, SD = 1.005).

Records. According to Kielland (1990, p.54), in Tanzania this species occurs in dry woodlands and, coastally, in more moist forests, from sea level up to 1500 m, sometimes a little higher. Recorded by Kielland from lower and dryer parts of the Northern Highlands, the centre of the country, Rubeho Mts, Morogoro, and certain coastal localities (Dendene Forest, Pugu Hills and Sadani). There are several specimens from Taveta in OUMNH. Included here on the basis of two males and two females in BMNH from the slopes of Kilimanjaro. More generally, this species occurs widely in northern, central and eastern Africa, and Madagascar, with separate subspecies recognized for Madagascar and Arabia ( Ackery et al. 1995).

A brown spot that is not centred with “mother-of-pearl” located near the apex of the hindwing underside discal cell helps to distinguish this otherwise rather plain species from a number of similar-looking butterflies ( Larsen 1996, p.126). Although variable ( d’ Abrera 1997), there is relatively little difference between the sexes ( Larsen 1996). Most individuals can be placed as one of three forms: f. “buquetii”, with a broad, dark and complete forewing border, f. “arabica” in which the border is usually not so broad or dark and is obsolete posteriorly, and f. “capensis”, in which the border is more or less completely obsolete. All three forms appear to affect both sexes in the material we have seen from the Kilimanjaro area. If correct, this represents a relatively unusual case of multiple unimodal polymorphism ( Vane-Wright 1975).