Pinacopteryx eriphia melanarge (Butler, 1886)

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 : 1561

Pinacopteryx eriphia melanarge (Butler, 1886)

Kielland 1990: 266 (1 fig). Larsen 1996: pl. 5, fig. 38i. d’ Abrera 1997: 67 (3 figs of subsp. eriphia (Godart, 1819)) . SI: Figure 22e–h.

Forewing length: male 22–30 mm (mean (n = 6) 26.67 mm, SD = 2.406); female 23– 33 mm (mean (n = 9) 27.83 mm, SD = 2.550).

Records. Throughout most of northern Tanzania (but absent from northwest), where it occurs in dry woodland at 500–2000 m ( Kielland 1990, p.53). Included here as a member of the lower slopes fauna based on three old female specimens from Kilimanjaro in BMNH collection, and the type material of the synonym Herpaenia iterata Butler, 1888 , described from material collected by Johnston ( Butler 1888, p.96). Bernardi (1957: figs 18,29,23) recorded P. e. melanarge from Moshi and Taveta.

More widely the subspecies extends to Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, southern Sudan and northern Uganda, with the species as a whole widespread throughout the Afrotropical region ( Ackery et al. 1995); however, the distinct Madagascan Pinacopteryx eriphia mabillei (Aurivillius, 1898) has recently been raised to full species status by Nazari et al. (2011). The sexes of P. e. melanarge are similar, but the female has a slightly more rounded forewing apex, and the underside forewing is less boldly marked than in the male.