Pseudopontia paradoxa
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Pieridae
Genus: Pseudopontia
Species:
P. paradoxa
Binomial name
Pseudopontia paradoxa
(Felder, 1869)
Synonyms
  • Globiceps paradoxa Felder & Felder, 1869
  • Pseudopontia calabarica Plötz, 1870
  • Pseudopontia cepheus Ehrmann, 1894

Pseudopontia paradoxa is a species of butterfly found only in wet forests of tropical Africa. It was traditionally thought to be the only species (monotypic) in the genus Pseudopontia and the subfamily Pseudopontiinae. However, a recent study showed there are at least five species of Pseudopontia which can be distinguished genetically and by details of wing veins. Each is found primarily in a different part of Africa, though several of the species have overlapping geographic distributions.

It is considered paradoxical because, despite being a true butterfly (Papilionoidea), its antennae do not have the characteristic clubbed ends which are otherwise diagnostic of butterflies (Rhopalocera).

The larvae feed on Pseuderanthemum tunicatum, Rhopalopilia marquesii and Rhopalopilia pallens.[1]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pseudopontia paradoxa.
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Sources

  • Plötz, C. (1870) Pseudopontia Calabarica n. gen. et n. sp. Stettiner Entomologischer Zeitung, 31, 348–349, 1 pl.
  • Felder, R. (1869) [no title]. Petites Nouvelles Entomologiques, 1, 30–31.
  • Felder, R. (1870) Gonophlebia (Globiceps), Paradoxa (Felder). Petites Nouvelles Entomologiques, 1, 95.
  • Dixey, F.A. (1923) Pseudopontia paradoxa: its affinities, mimetic relations, and geographical races. Proceedings of the Entomological Society (London), lxi–lxvii +plate B.
  • Mitter, K.T., Larsen, T.B., et al. (2011). The butterfly subfamily Pseudopontiinae is not monobasic: marked genetic diversity and morphology reveal three new species of Pseudopontia (Lepidoptera: Pieridae). Systematic Entomology 36: 139–163. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-3113.2010.00549.x


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