Mylothris superbus Kielland, 1985

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 : 1576

[ Mylothris superbus Kielland, 1985 ]

Kielland 1985: 97 (4 figs), 99–101 (male genitalia); 1990: 270, 2 figs. d’ Abrera 1997: 111 (2 figs – female mislabelled as “ M. similis dollmani ”).

Kielland (1985) gave the following measurements for superbus : male 32.5–33.5 mm, female 31.8 mm [sic – even though Kielland listed seven females in addition to six males in the type series].

Known from Nguru Mts: Morogoro District, Mkombola, Maskati and above Mhonda Mission ( Kielland 1990, p.70). According to Kielland this species is endemic to the Nguru Mts, but it was recorded from Mount Kilimanjaro by Lieski (2009), who reported seeing it rarely during November, when a few were caught at 2000 m. SDL’ s identification was made at the BMNH in 2002, and confirmed at the time by RIVW. However, we now consider this to have been a misidentification of certain specimens of M. rueppellii tirikensis with orange at the base of the hindwing upperside in addition to the orange flush at the base of the forewing – giving a superficial resemblance to (the much larger) male of M. superbus . There is no evidence to suggest that M. superbus occurs on Kilimanjaro, and this record should be discounted.