Butterflies of
Africa
Light Brown Forester
Bebearia zonara
BUTLER, 1871
Family - NYMPHALIDAE
subfamily -
LIMENITIDINAE
Tribe - ADOLIADINI
Bebearia zonara,
male, Bunso, Ghana
Introduction
There are about 95 Bebearia
species, all of which are wholly Afrotropical in distribution.
The
fritillary-like pattern of the butterfly illustrated above is typical of many of
the smaller Bebearia males, although in most others the
ground colour is darker and duller than in zonara.
The female is larger than the male, and different in appearance, having a
brown and cream Catuna-like pattern.
The
undersides of nearly all Bebearia species are
cryptically patterned. In the case of zonara, the
undersides of both sexes are a dull greyish or slightly creamy colour, heavily
marbled with greyish brown. When the butterflies are on the forest floor
with their wings closed, the overall impression is of a dead dry leaf.
Bebearia
zonara is distributed from Liberia to Congo and western Uganda.
Habitats
This species is a rainforest butterfly, but
it is commoner in the drier and more open forests where it is abundant in the
larger glades, and along logging roads which receive dappled sunlight.
Lifecycle
The
larval foodplant is Hypselodelphis ( Marantaceae ).
Adult behaviour
Males spend a lot of time
within the forest, occupying sunspots among the leaf litter.
Periodically they emerge onto the sunlit logging roads to imbibe
moisture from the damp ground, or to bask on low foliage. Females
are quite secretive, but can be found along the narrower
tracks and paths. They are easily overlooked due to their
dark colouration and their similarity to
Catuna, and to females of other
Bebearia species. Both sexes feed at fermenting fallen
fruit, in company with various Euphaedra
species, other Bebearia species, and
Aterica galene.
Bebearia zonara,
male, Bunso, Ghana
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