Bicyclus safitza safitza (Westwood, 1850)

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 : 876

Bicyclus safitza safitza (Westwood, 1850)

Larsen 1996: pl. 29, fig. 420 i – iv. d ’ Abrera 1997: 217 (2 figs). SI: Figure 9a – d.

Forewing length: male 23 – 26.5 mm [mean (n = 12) 24.59 mm, SD = 0.757]; female 25 – 28 mm [mean (n = 12) 26.63 mm, SD = 0.628].

Note: the name of this species should be conserved ( Larsen and Vane-Wright 2012).

Records

The most widespread and common Tanzanian Bicyclus , recorded from every part of the country and in most habitats, from sea level to 2200 m ( Kielland 1990, p. 81). This butterfly was not encountered by Liseki (2009), and is therefore listed as a member of the lower slopes fauna – but it may well also occur in the lower zones of the protected forest. Two specimens ex Rothschild Collection (BMNH) are labelled ‘ 6 miles NW of Moshi, 8.v.1916, Buchanan ’. There are numerous specimens in BMNH from Lake Manyara. The OUMNH has six males and seven females from the slopes of Kilimanjaro and Taveta. Beyond Tanzania this butterfly is found throughout almost all of Africa south of the Sahara (Aurivillius 1911b, p. 93; Condamin 1973, p. 236), with the population in Ethiopia regarded as a separate subspecies ( Ackery et al. 1995, p. 292).