Noble butterfly

Noble butterfly

We are delighted that Anna Kreipl has taken over the sponsorship of a male of the butterfly Cymothoe beckeri.

Cymothoe beckeri is a butterfly from the Nymphalidae family. Here you can see the male of this species.

The male is creamy yellow in colour with a broad, brown-black border on the hind wings. The forewings of the females are black with white spots, the hindwings are mainly white with a black, white-spotted edge and a characteristic yellow spot. The wingspan is between 7.5 cm - 8.5 cm.

Cymothoe beckeri is a forest butterfly, but also copes better with agricultural land than most species of the genus.

A special feature of these noble butterflies is that the females imitate poisonous, diurnal "moths" such as Otroeda planax and Nyctemera hesperia in order to protect themselves from predators.
The males are mainly found at sunspots in the forest, where they sit and attack butterflies flying by. Males and females feed on fallen fruit. The caterpillars' food plants are species of the genus Caloncoba (Flacourtiaceae).

Their distribution area includes Nigeria to Cameroon, Gabon, Angola, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda (west).

This species is also endangered due to the destruction of the rainforests.