Scientific name Acraea trimeni | Genus Acraea Rank Species | |
Similar Acraea barberi, Acraea axina, Acraea rahira, Acraea rabbaiae, Acraea oncaea | ||
Acraea trimeni, the Trimen's acraea, is a butterfly of the Nymphalidae family. It is found in only in the arid savannah in the northern Northern Cape and the western part of the Free State.
Contents
The wingspan is 43–49 mm for males and 45–55 mm for females. Adults are usually on wing from October to March with a peak in late October. There might be two or continuous generations per year.
Taxonomy
The status of this species is uncertain. Acraea trimeni was described as a form or aberration of Acraea barberi. Aurivillius (1898) is uncertain as to whether trimeni is an aberration or variety of barberi Trimen. Eltringham (1912) retains the rank of aberration of barberi Trimen. Van Son (1963) considers trimeni as a subspecies of zetes. In his phylogenetic analysis of 1992-1993, Henning considers the Aurivillius description as a good species but trimeni may be a synonym of barberi.
Eltringham's text reads "In the example named ab. trimeni by Aurivillius the apical yellow is more pronounced, and the forewing hind marginal black is almost absent. Aurivillius includes under this an example from Rehoboth (German W. Africa) which is now in the Staudinger collection. If this is really barberi then the hypoleuca of Trimen must also be a form of zetes which indeed is highly probable. Extremely different in appearance though it is. I have in fact only kept hypoleuca separate from zetes because it is so far a unique example and bears no locality. The example labelled barberi in the Staudinger collection differs very little from it. (See remarks under A. hypoleuca)".
Etymology
The specific name honours Roland Trimen.