Colotis antevippe zera (Lucas, 1852)

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 : 1549-1550

Colotis antevippe zera (Lucas, 1852)

Kielland 1990: 266, 5 figs. Larsen 1996: pl. 7, figs 65 i–v. d’ Abrera 1997: 83 (6 figs of other subspp.). SI: Figure 6a–h.

Forewing length: male 19.5–25 mm (mean (n = 5) 22.1 mm, SD = 1.528); female 19– 23 mm (mean (n = 5) 21.0 mm, SD = 1.168).

Records. According to Kielland (1990, p.55), common in northern and western Tanzania in semi-deserts, open formations and woodlands, at altitudes of 780–2000 m. In Kenya it ranges from the coast to c. 1800 m ( Larsen 1996, p.134). The BMNH collection includes several specimens from west Kilimanjaro collected at heights below 1600 m. Butler (1888, p.92) recorded this species from Kilimanjaro as Teracolus antevippe , while Aurivillius (1910a, p.12) recorded the species from Kilimanjaro under the invalid name Teracolus achine (Cramer) [sic] [recte Stoll, 1781], but both without information on altitude. The OUMNH has five specimens from Taveta, which lies on the southeastern flank of the Kilimanjaro massif. Elsewhere, subspecies zera occurs from eastern DRC and Uganda north to Saudi Arabia and Oman. The species as a whole is found throughout much of the drier parts of Africa ( Ackery et al. 1995).

Males vary, notably with respect to the hindwing margin, whereas the darker females occur in a range of forms, with frequent variations. Wet season forms have the veins on the underside of the wings heavily marked with black, unlike dry season forms ( Brakefield and Larsen 1984, fig. 5).