Colotis regina (Trimen, 1863)

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 : 1558-1559

Colotis regina (Trimen, 1863)

Kielland 1990: 267, 1 fig. Larsen 1996: pl. 6 fig. 57i, pl. 7 fig. 57ii. d’ Abrera 1997: 77 (4 figs). SI: Figure 19a–h.

Forewing length: male 29.0–35.0 mm (mean (n = 5) 32.52 mm, SD = 1.751); female 31.0–35.0 mm (mean (n = 5) 33.32 mm, SD = 1.190).

Records. This large Colotis has been recorded from Tanzania in woodlands at 300– 1800 m in the Nguu Mts, Morogoro, Turiani, the slopes of Mt Image, Udzungwa, the Ukaguru Mts, Mikumi, the Mpwapwa District and much of the western part of the country ( Kielland 1990, p.59). Included here as a member of the lower slopes fauna on the basis of several specimens in BMNH collected at New Moshi in 1916 by F.C. Selous, and two males from Moshi caught at 2700 ft in June 1920 (Rothschild Collection). Larsen (1996, p.132) noted records for Taveta (see also Rogers 1913, p.99). The species ranges elsewhere south to Mozambique and northeastern South Africa, west to Namibia and Angola, and north to Somalia.

This “purple tip” has several female forms, principally reflecting white or yellow ground colour, and red or non-red forewing tip coloration. The extent of any red marking is particularly variable: in some females there are rows of more or less discrete proximal (two or three) and distal (four or five) spots within the apex, and neither, either one or the other, or both can be reddened ( Kielland 1990, illustrates a white female of this last sort). As d’ Abrera (1997) noted, the forms “are connected by intergrades”.