Colotis hetaera hetaera (Gerstaecker, 1871)

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 : 1557-1558

Colotis hetaera hetaera (Gerstaecker, 1871)

d’ Abrera 1997: 79 (4 figs). SI: Figures 16a–h, 17a–h.

Forewing length: male 27.0–38.0 mm (mean (n = 7) 33.33 mm, SD = 3.603); female 29.0–37.0 mm (mean (n = 7) 33.49 mm, SD = 2.092).

Records. Open woodland and grassy country in northeastern Tanzania ( Kielland 1990, p.58), up to about 1600 m (records in BMNH). Included here as a member of the lower slopes fauna based on a number of specimens in BMNH from West Kilimanjaro, Ngare-Nairobi , Loitokitok and New Moshi, and one specimen from Taveta in OUMNH. Recorded from Taveta by Rogers (1913, p.99). The nominate race extends to coastal areas of Kenya ; other subspecies occupy northern Tanzania, Uganda, DRC and central Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and southern Sudan.

Males vary notably in the extent of the crimson forewing apical patch. The females are variable and polymorphic, including white versus yellow ground-colour, and individuals lacking red at the forewing tip. Various form names have been applied to the females, six of which are discussed by Talbot (1939); of these, f. “strix” is fairly similar to “sulfureus”.