Occurrence of Acraea Butterflies in Africa, 1892- 2022

Study Extent

Butterfly collection was done across different countries within the African continent.

Sampling

The intensive butterfly sampling was conducted along paths and small forest roads in the vegetation types. The butterflies were captured during the day using sweep nets either in flight or when settled and traps. Specimens reared from larva or ova were also collected from the field. The collected specimens were then preserved in the ABRI collection.

Quality Control

Steve Collins, Director at ABRI and the lead author, did most of the butterfly identification and assisted by other lepidopterists including Szabolcs Safian, T. Pyrcz and Dr. V.G.L. Van. Someren The butterfly species names recorded were referenced using the following books and websites: 1. Dominique Bernaud’s Acraea website 2. Global Biodiversity Information Facility 3. Catalogue of Life 4. African Butterfly Database 5. Acraea metamorphosis Original dataset was then formatted while adhering to Darwin’s Core Standards.

Method steps

1. The bait traps were laid along paths and small roads of different vegetation types to attract butterflies. The collectors captured butterflies either in flight or at rest using sweep nets. Sweep nets were held upside down to collect butterflies. The butterfly samples to be retained were then pinched on the thorax. With their wings over the back, the butterflies were then slipped into envelopes or paper triangles. Thereafter, specimens were dried, mounted, labelled, and preserved in the ABRI collection. Google Earth was the major tool used to generate each coordinate for each locality, each coordinate was taken from a central position to represent the general locality. Open refine was the ultimate tool used for data cleaning. With this put to proper use, the quality of data was enhanced and common errors made for localities were corrected and spellings were under check too.

Butterfly collection was conducted along parks, forest reserves and primary montane forests in most of African countries.