Butterflies of
Africa
Oberthür's
Pathfinder
Catuna oberthueri
KARSCH, 1894
Family - NYMPHALIDAE
subfamily -
LIMENITIDINAE
Tribe - ADOLIADINI
Catuna oberthueri,
Big Tree, Ghana
Introduction
There are 5
Catuna species, all Afrotropical in distribution.
Catuna crithea is by far the commonest, and is
found throughout the forested areas of sub-Saharan Africa, from Guinea to
western Kenya and Zambia, but does not reach South Africa or the ease coast of
the continent.
Catuna
oberthueri is found from Sierra Leone to Congo, Uganda and western
Tanzania.
Habitats
This is a rainforest species, and tends to
be most abundant along paths and tracks where dappled sunlight filters through
the tree foliage to reach the forest floor.
Lifecycle
The
larval foodplants are unknown but are most likely to be in the family Sapotaceae.
Adult behaviour
Oberthur's
Pathfinder is a fairly common species across it's range, but it is
rarely as abundant as crithea, with
which it sometimes, but not always shares it's breeding sites. At
some sites where it is common, crithea
is virtually absent, suggesting that the 2 species may depend on
different larval foodplants.
The
flight and behaviour are similar to that of
crithea, but oberthueri tends
to be less nervous and more approachable.
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