Colotis incretus (Butler, 1881)

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 : 1549

Colotis incretus (Butler, 1881)

Larsen 1996: pl. 7, figs 64 i,ii (as C. auxo incretus ). d’ Abrera 1997: 81 (4 figs). SI: Figure 4a–h.

Forewing length: male 20.5–26.0 mm (mean (n = 8) 23.09 mm, SD = 1.599); female 19.5–26.0 mm (mean (n = 12) 23.4 mm, SD = 1.461).

Nazari et al. (2011) confirm that incretus should be treated as a separate species, as proposed by d’ Abrera (1980, 1997, p.80). Colotis incretus appears to be larger than C. auxo dissociatus and, according to Larsen (1996, p.134), it is also larger than C. evarne , or at least usually so.

Records. Occurs in savannah and dry woodland of Tanzania, at c. 75–2100 m, in Mpanda and Kigoma, the northern highlands, central districts, Turiani, Morogoro, Pugu Hills, Rubeho Mts and Chimala ( Kielland 1990, p.56, as C. auxo incretus ). Noted by Aurivillius (1910d, p.60) from Kilimanjaro, and included here as a member of the lower slopes fauna based on several specimens in BMNH from West Kilimanjaro, Taveta (these probably including material recorded by Butler 1888, p.92) and Marangu, with 11 more specimens from Taveta in OUMNH. Liseki (2009) did not encounter this species at 2000 m or above, in the forest zone. Beyond Tanzania, according to d’ Abrera (1997), this butterfly occurs north to Kenya and Uganda, and south and west to northern Malawi, Burundi and perhaps Rwanda and DRC – to which, based on the type locality at least, northern Mozambique must be added.

Females vary in ground-colour (yellow/white/intermediate), and forewing tip coloration (orange/no orange tip/intermediate). As a result they are very varied, with just these two variable factors giving up to nine possible phenotypes. However, although yellow ground can occur without an orange tip, this appears to be unusual – but is approached by the specimen illustrated at SI: Figure 4g.

GROUP III