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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Research, Conservation and Education
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), so 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 in all probability it will also be found at Semuliki. Only four species are frequently sampled in traps: Cymothoe sangaris, C. cyclades, C. ochreata and C. confusa. The most commonly trapped species C. confusa had a distinctly clumped distribution within a site. This genus has been loosely grouped into clades.​​​
Caenis clade. There is only one species, C. caenis recorded at Semuliki from within this clade comprising 13 species. Females are polymorphic, coming in a variety of colour forms and currently the caenis-complex taxonomy has still not fully been resolved (Van Velzen et al., 2009). This is not a rare species at Semuliki but not as often sampled as the three most common species.
Cymothoe caenis (Drury, 1773)
Cymothoe caenis (male, upper and underside)
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Cymothoe caenis (female variations, upper and underside)
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Cymothoe caenis (female uppersides, colour variations)
Cymothoe caenis (female upperside, colour variation)
Incertae sedis. Three of the recorded species (C. beckeri, C. jodutta and C. cyclades) have not been assigned to any of the named clades. 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 were the most abundant Cymothoe species.
Cymothoe beckeri theodosia (Staudinger, 1890)
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Cymothoe beckeri (male, upper and underside)
Cymothoe beckeri (female, upperside)
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Cymothoe beckeri (female, underside)
Cymothoe jodutta mostinckxi (Overlaet, 1952)
Cymothoe jodutta (male, upper and underside)
Cymothoe jodutta (female, upperside)
Cymothoe jodutta (female, underside)
Cymothoe cyclades (Ward, 1871)
Cymothoe cyclades (male, upperside)
Cymothoe cyclades (male, underside)
Cymothoe cyclades (female, upperside)
Cymothoe cyclades (female, underside)
Egesta clade. Two species within this clade, with one of the species recorded from Semuliki:C. confusa. It is a commonly observed and sampled species with a clumped distribution within the forest, most likely influenced by the distribution of its food plant.
Cymothoe confusa (Aurivillius, 1887)
Cymothoe confusa (male, upper and underside)
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Cymothoe confusa (male, upperside marginal/submarginal variation)
Cymothoe confusa (male underside, pronounced pattern
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Cymothoe confusa (male upperside, variation)
Cymothoe confusa (female, upperside)
Cymothoe confusa (female, underside)
Adela clade. There is only one species, C. ochreata recorded at Semuliki from this clade of five Afrotropical species. Another relatively commonly sampled species.
Cymothoe ochreata (Grose-Smith, 1890)
Cymothoe confusa (female, underside)
Cymothoe ochreata (male, upper and underside)
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Cymothoe ochreata (male, upperside - colour and pattern variation)
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Cymothoe ochreata (female upper and underside)
Cymothoe ochreata (female, upperside - dark colour form)
Lurida clade. There are five species assigned to this clade, two have been recorded at Semuliki: Cymothoe lurida and C. colmanti. Both species were rarely encountered in the traps. Only C. lurida males were trapped and C. colmanti females. Two species from this clade (C. hesiodotus and C. hyarbita) have been trapped within the Ituri Forest and DRC Semliki Valley and would probably be recorded with further sampling coupled with expanded sampling site locations
Cymothoe colmanti (Aurivillius, 1898)
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Cymothoe colmanti (female, upper and underside)
Cymothoe lurida tristis (Overlaet, 1952)
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Cymothoe lurida (male, upper and underside)
Fumana clade. There are two species assigned to this, clade with one having been recorded at Semuliki: C.ymothoe 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 diphyia (Karsch, 1894)
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Cymothoe haynae (female, upper and underside)
Sangaris clade. There are four species assigned to this clade with two species: Cymothoe sangaris and C. hobarti being recorded at Semuliki. C. sangaris was a seasonally common species while C. hobarti was sampled only once, a female and replaces to the east of Semuliki the C. sangaris population of the sangaris-complex.
Cymothoe sangaris sangaris (Godart, 1824)
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Cymothoe sangaris (male, upper and underside)
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Cymothoe sangaris (female, upper and underside)
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Cymothoe sangaris (female, upperside - pale colour form)
Cymothoe hobarti mwamikazi (Overlaet, 1952)
Cymothoe hobarti (female, upperside)
Coccinata clade. There are 14 species included in this clade of which four have been recorded at Semuliki: Cymothoe 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 but has been sampled in the Ituri Forest
Cymothoe reginaeelisabethae reginaeelisabethae (Holland, 1920)
Cymothoe reginaeelisabethae (male, upper and underside)
Cymothoe coccinata vrydaghi (Overlaet, 1944)
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Cymothoe coccinata (male, upper and underside)
Cymothoe coccinata (female, upperside)
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Cymothoe coccinata (female, underside)
Cymothoe meridionalis ghesquierei (Overlaet, 1944)
Cymothoe meridionalis (waiting on field images)
Cymothoe distincta kivuensis (Overlaet, 1952)
Cymothoe distincta (waiting on field images)
Herminia clade. C. herminia is the only species recorded at Semuliki from the three species described for this group. Again an obviously uncommon species, which was never encountered.
Cymothoe herminia herminia (Grose-Smith, 1887)
Cymothoe herminia (waiting on field images)
Genus 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.