Danaus (Anosia) chrysippus chrysippus (Linnaeus, 1758)

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 : 869

Danaus (Anosia) chrysippus chrysippus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Larsen 1996: pl. 27, fig. 385 i. d ’ Abrera 1997: 185 (6 figs, as D. chrysippus aegyptius ). SI: Figure 2c – h.

Forewing length: male 33 – 47 mm [mean (n = 30) 39.94 mm, SD = 3.008]; female 27 – 46 mm [mean (n = 13) 36.97 mm, SD = 4.888].

Note: see Appendix 2 for an account of recent debate regarding the taxonomy of African Danaus .

Records

In most parts of the country, from sea level to high mountains, flying all year ( Kielland 1990, p. 73). Godman (1885, p. 537, as Danais dorippus (Klug, 1845)) recorded this butterfly from Kilimanjaro up to c. 1500 m, but Aurivillius (1910a, p. 2, as Danaida dorippus ) gave elevations up to 3200 m. Kielland (1990) did not give specific records but the continuing presence of this butterfly on the mountain was confirmed by Liseki (2009). Beyond Tanzania this subspecies occurs throughout the Afrotropical Region, much of Arabia and Asia, including Asia Minor and the Levant, and even breeds occasionally in parts of southern Europe (notably Italy and Greece) (Ackery and Vane- Wright 1984; Ackery et al. 1995, p. 268, as Danaus c. aegyptius (Schreber, 1759)).

In many parts of Africa, including Tanzania, D . chrysippus exhibits unimodal wing-pattern polymorphism (terminology of Vane-Wright 1975). In the Kilimanjaro area most individuals appear to be of the ‘ dorippus ’ phenotype, but forms ‘ transiens ’, ‘ semialbinus ’ and ‘ albinus ’ also occur – indicating that the population is polymorphic at the loci controlling both hindwing coloration (the A-locus, with white recessive) and forewing pattern (the C-locus, with pre-apical forewing bar recessive) . In OUMNH there is a single male f . ‘ chrysippus ’ from North Kilimanjaro ( Kenya), collected 19 June 1905, ex Brodie Collection – which can be presumed to have the genotype AAcc (see summary table in Ackery and Vane-Wright 1984, p. 95) – however, the nominate form appears genuinely rare on Kilimanjaro . In Asia, form ‘ dorippus ’ is found as far east as Sri Lanka. In addition to colour pattern polymorphism, both sexes (and all forms) of this species vary very greatly in size.