Libythea labdaca
Species of butterfly
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Libythea labdaca, the African snout butterfly, is a member of the butterfly subfamily Libytheinae found in western and central Africa.[2]
| African snout butterfly | |
|---|---|
| |
_underside.jpg) | |
| L. l. labdaca, Kakamega Forest, Kenya | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Nymphalidae |
| Genus: | Libythea |
| Species: | L. labdaca |
| Binomial name | |
| Libythea labdaca | |
It forms vast migratory swarms (over 1 billion butterflies were estimated in Ghana). The butterflies move south in the spring and north in the autumn.
The larvae feed on Celtis species (including C. kraussiana and C. sayauxii).
_2.jpg)
_underside_2.jpg)
_puddling.jpg)
Subspecies
- Libythea labdaca labdaca (Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Bioko, São Tomé and Príncipe, Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, western Kenya, western Tanzania)
- Libythea labdaca laius Trimen, 1879 (Ethiopia, eastern Kenya, eastern and northern Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Angola, Mozambique, eastern Zimbabwe, northern Botswana, South Africa, Eswatini)
