Acraea bonasia
species of insect
Acraea bonasia, the bonasia acraea, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae which is native to the African tropics and subtropics.
Range
It is found in Senegal, the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Ethiopia.
Description
A. bonasia is nearly allied both to Acraea alicia and to Acraea sotikensis and all three probably belong to one species. From alicia, which Eltringham regards only as a form of bonasia, it differs in having the base of cellule 2 of the forewing black and from sotikensis it seems to me only to differ in having the light longitudinal stripe at the median of the forewing above completely united with the hindmarginal spot. On this ground I also refer praeponina Stgr. to sotikensis.
bonasia F. (56 b). Markings of the upper surface yellow-red; the black dots on the underside of the hindwing at least in the cell and cellule 7 connected by red spots or streaks; the marginal band on the underside of the hindwing with light streaks or lines at the veins. The female either only differs from the male in having light marginal spots on the upperside of the hindwing or (ab. cynthius Drury) has the light markings of the upper surface light yellowish.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Acraea bonasia” as species of insect. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as species of insect. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 10, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q4674838. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Acraea bonasia” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.