Subfamily Heliconiinae.: A largely pantropical group, with one of the five tribes found in the Holarctic Region.
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Tribe Acraeini: There are two Afrotropical genera contained within this tribe; Telchinia and Acraea, both represented at Semuliki. There are 138 described Afrotropical species within this tribe with 104 species recorded in Uganda. At Semuliki a total of 45 species from both genera have been recorded: 25 from the genus Telchinia and 20 species of Acraea, contributing to a third of the Ugandan species total.
Genus Cymothoe: There are 15 species of the Afrotropical genus Cymothoe so far recorded at Semuliki from a.continent total of 78 (Williams, 2018) and a Ugandan total of 17 (Williams, 2015) or 90% of Uganda's total. The two Ugandan species not being recorded at Semuliki being C. distincta and C. indamora, but with both these species being recorded either in the Ituri Forest or Semliki Valley (Ducarme, 2018) it is a distinct possibility that they will also be found in Semuliki. Only three species are frequently sampled in traps and these are C. sangaris, C. cyclades and C. confusa. This genus has been categorised into clades nd the most commonly trapped species C. confusa had a distinctly clumped distribution within Semuliki. Species from this genus were observed more in the forest midstorey as compared to the preference of the forest floor for the genera Bebearia, Euphaedra and Euriphene.
Genus Cymothoe: There are 15 species of the Afrotropical genus Cymothoe so far recorded at Semuliki from a.continent total of 78 (Williams, 2018) and a Ugandan total of 17 (Williams, 2015) or 90% of Uganda's total. The two Ugandan species not being recorded at Semuliki being C. distincta and C. indamora, but with both these species being recorded either in the Ituri Forest or Semliki Valley (Ducarme, 2018) it is a distinct possibility that they will also be found in Semuliki. Only three species are frequently sampled in traps and these are C. sangaris, C. cyclades and C. confusa. This genus has been categorised into clades nd the most commonly trapped species C. confusa had a distinctly clumped distribution within Semuliki. Species from this genus were observed more in the forest midstorey as compared to the preference of the forest floor for the genera Bebearia, Euphaedra and Euriphene.
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Semuliki National Park, Uganda
Genus Cymothoe: There are 16 species of the Afrotropical genus Cymothoe so far recorded at Semuliki from a continent total of 78 (Williams, 2018) and a Ugandan total of 17 (Williams, 2015), or nearly 95% of Uganda's total. The only Ugandan species not being recorded at Semuliki being C. indamora, however this species has been recorded both in the Ituri Forest and the DRC Semliki Valley (Ducarme, 2018) and so it is a distinct possibility that it will also be found at Semuliki. Only three species are frequently sampled in traps and these are C. sangaris, C. cyclades and C. confusa. This genus has been categorised into clades and the most commonly trapped species C. confusa had a distinctly clumped distribution within Semuliki. Species from this genus were observed more in the forest midstorey as compared to the preference of the forest floor of the genera Bebearia, Euphaedra and Euriphene.
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Caenis Clade. There is only one species, C. caenis of this clade recorded at Semuliki. Females come in a variety of colour forms and the caenis-complex taxonomy is still unravelling (Van Velzen et al., 2009). This is not a rare species at Semuliki but not as often sampled as the three most common species. Both the males and females are morphologically variable.
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Cymothoe caenis
Incertae sedis. A number of species have not been assigned to any of the named clades. One of these species is C. beckeri, a rarely observed species that was never trapped within the traditional Van Someren-Rydon style trap, but in a net on the forest fringes. Another unclassified species, C. cyclades is a commonly observed and sampled species within the forest. Along with C. confusa, these two species are the most abundant Cymothoe species. C. jodutta was another uncommon species and rarely trapped.
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Cymothoe beckeri
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Cymothoe cyclades
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Cymothoe jodutta
Egesta Clade. C. confusa is a commonly observed and sampled species with a clumped distribution within the forest. Possibly influenced by the distribution of its food plant.
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Cymothoe confusa
Adela Clade. C. ochreata is another relatively common sampled species. There is only one species recorded at Semuliki from this clade of 5 Afrotropical species.
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Cymothoe ochreata
Lurida clade. There are five species assigned to this clade, two have been recorded at Semuliki: C. lurida and C. colmanti. Both species were rarely encountered in the traps. Only one male of C. lurida was trapped.
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Cymothoe lurida
Cymothoe colmanti
Fumana clade. There are two species assigned to this clade with one having been recorded at Semuliki: C. haynae. This was a very rare species and only the female was encountered. It was only ever trapped at one site and so appeared to be site-specific.
Cymothoe haynae
Sangaris clade. There are four species assigned to this clade with two species: C. sangaris and C. hobarti being recorded at Semuliki. C. sangaris was a seasonally common species while C. hobarti was sampled only once, a female. C. hobarti replaces C. sangaris as the easternmost population of the sangaris-complex.
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Cymothoe sangaris
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Cymothoe hobarti
Coccinata Clade. There are 14 species included in this clade of which four have been recorded at Semuliki: C. reginaeelisabethae, C. coccinata, C. distincta and C. meridionalis. The three species sampled can be considered uncommon and are rarely trapped while C. distincta has not yet been sampled within the traps.
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Cymothoe reginaeelisabethae
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Cymothoe coccinata
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Cymothoe meridionalis
Cymothoe distincta (waiting on museum image)
Herminia Clade. C. herminia is the only species recorded at Semuliki from the three species described for this group. Again an uncommon species which was rarely encountered either observed or in the traps.
Cymothoe herminia
Field Images: There are field images for all but three species: C. meridionalis, C. herminia and C. distincta. Unfortunately an sd card full of images was corrupted. Fortunately, two of the Cymothoe species that have no complementary field image had been identified prior to the sd card being corrupted, in this case C. meridionalis and C. herminia. The species C. distincta has so far not been sampled within the traps or observed in the field while out sampling.
Cymothoe caenis (male, upper and underside)
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Cymothoe caenis (female, upper and underside)
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Cymothoe caenis (female uppersides, colour variations)
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Cymothoe beckeri (male, upper and underside)
Cymothoe beckeri (female, upperside)
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Cymothoe beckeri (female, underside)
Cymothoe jodutta (male, upper and underside)
Cymothoe jodutta (female, upperside)
Cymothoe jodutta (female, underside)
Cymothoe cyclades (male upperside)
Cymothoe cyclades (male underside)
Cymothoe cyclades (female upperside)
Cymothoe cyclades (female underside)
Cymothoe confusa (male upperside)
Cymothoe confusa (female upperside)
Cymothoe confusa (male upperside, showing colour variation in hindwing marginal, submarginal area)
Cymothoe confusa (male underside)
Cymothoe confusa (female underside)
Cymothoe ochreata (male upperside)
Cymothoe ochreata (male underside)
Cymothoe ochreata (female upperside)
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Cymothoe ochreata (female underside)
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Cymothoe colmanti (male, upper and underside)
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Cymothoe colmanti (female upper and underside)
Cymothoe lurida (male, upper and underside)
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Cymothoe haynae (female, upper and underside)
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Cymothoe sangaris (male, upper and underside)
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Cymothoe sangaris (female, upper and underside)
Cymothoe hobarti (female, upperside)
Cymothoe reginaeelisabethae (male, upper and underside)
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Cymothoe coccinata (male, upper and underside)
Cymothoe coccinata (female, upperside)
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Cymothoe meridionalis, C. herminia and C. distincta (waiting on field images)
Cymothoe coccinata (female, underside)
Specific genus site links, references and bibliography:
Savela, M. Cymothoe Hübner, [1819]. Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms. Excellent online resource.
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Van Velzen., (2009). A new hidden species of the Cymothoe caenis-complex (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) from western Africa. Zootaxa 2197, 53-63.
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Van Velzen., (2013). Evolution of associations between Cymothoe butterflies and their Rinorea host plants in tropical Africa. PhD thesis, Wageningen University, Wageningen, Netherlands.
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Williams, M.C., (2018). Genus Cymothoe. A section of Afrotropical Butterflies (17th Edition). Publication is available from Lepidopterists' Society of Africa website https://www.lepsocafrica.org/?p=publications&s=atb.