Ypthima simplicia Butler, 1876

Liseki, Steven D. & Vane-Wright, Richard I., 2015, Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea) of Mount Kilimanjaro: Nymphalidae subfamilies Libytheinae, Danainae, Satyrinae and Charaxinae, Journal of Natural History 50, pp. 865-904 : 879

Ypthima simplicia Butler, 1876

Kielland 1982: pl. 2 figs 7,8; pl. 3 figs 1 – 4. d ’ Abrera 1997: 233 (2 figs). SI: Figure 12e – h. Based on Kielland (1982, p. 114), male forewing length c. 15 – 17 mm, females 15 – 21 mm.

Note: reliable identification of this species is difficult based on external characters alone. Larsen (1996 – who did not illustrate this species) discussed its separation from Y. asterope and Y. yatta (see also Kielland 1982), considering it to be more similar to the latter in lacking pale margins – but Larsen did not illustrate Y. yatta either.

Records

Found in Tanzania in montane and semi-montane grassland at altitudes up to 2200 m ( Kielland 1990, p. 86) . Specific localities are given as Meto Hills , Mt Longido and West Kilimanjaro – with Kielland (loc. cit.) suggesting that the Kenya / Tanzania populations ‘ may very well belong to a distinct race ’. The type locality of Y . simplicia is generally treated simply as Ethiopia, but it is in fact either Atbara town ( Sudan), or somewhere along the Atbara River – which, although it rises in northwestern Ethiopia, flows for most of its length through the Sudan – see Appendix 4 .

Ypthima simplicia was not encountered on Kilimanjaro over the range 2000 – 3000 m by Liseki (2009), nor have we been able to locate material of this species from the mountain in the BMNH or OUMNH. Its inclusion here, as a member of the lower slopes fauna, is based on Kielland (1982, p. 115; 1990, p. 86). Beyond Tanzania, Y. simplicia is thought to occur in Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya (Ngong Hills) ( Ackery et al. 1995).