Butterflies of
Africa
Mandinga Forester
Bebearia mandinga
FELDER & FELDER, 1860
Family - NYMPHALIDAE
subfamily -
LIMENITIDINAE
Tribe - ADOLIADINI
Bebearia mandinga,
female, Wli Falls, Ghana / Togo border
Introduction
There are about 95 Bebearia
species, all of which are found in the forests of the Afrotropics.
The genus
Bebearia is closely allied to Euphaedra, and
the females of several species, e.g. sophus and
phantasia are very similar in appearance to the
colourful Euphaedra Foresters. Their cryptic
"dead-leaf" underside patterns however are completely different to those of
Euphaedra, which in many species are patterned in
bright yellow and / or pink.
The females of other
Bebearia species including
mandinga are patterned on the upperside in dark brown and cream, with a
pattern similar to the Catuna Pathfinders.
Males of
mandinga, and several other Bebearia species
have a brown or orange ground colour, with a linear pattern of black spots that
is reminiscent of the Fritillaries of the Holarctic.
Bebearia
mandinga is distributed from Sierra Leone to Congo and Uganda.
Habitats
This is a rainforest butterfly which
is found in the greatest numbers in undisturbed areas, although it also occurs
in degraded or secondary forest.
Lifecycle
The
eggs are laid in heaps on the leaves of the larval foodplant
Hypselodelphus ( Marantaceae ). The spectacular
caterpillars are green, and adorned with an array of multi-branched lateral
spines which are appressed to the leaf on which they are resting.
Adult behaviour
The Fritillary-like males tend
to be found in more open sunlit situations than the females, and
can often be seen sunning themselves in places where shafts of
sunlight reach the ground. They also appear commonly at
forest-edge habitats where they bask on the lower foliage of
bushes.
Females
are at least equally abundant, but spend most of their time in the
shadier parts of the forest understorey, although they can
often be seen basking on foliage early in the day, and again
in the late afternoon.
Bebearia mandinga,
female, Wli Falls, Ghana / Togo border
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