Superfamily: Papilionoidea Family: Status: Vagrant to Madeira
Also known as Danaid Eggfly or Diadem, it is a large butterfly with very distinctive dimorphism between sexes. Males are velvety black with large white spots fringed with blue while females are orange with black on the superior part of its fore-wings with white spots (Haahtela et al, 2011)
Its food plants are still unknown in Europe though in other parts of the world it feed from Amaranthus, Ipomoea, Hibiscus, Portulaca, Ficus, etc. (Haahtela et al, 2011)
“Although the records extend over almost a century, only males seem to have been collected and this species never established on the Madeira Islands.” (Aguiar & Karsholt, 2006)
The records in Europe relate to gardens in coastal regions (Tolman & Lewington, 2008).
In Madeira, the last influx of this species recorded by Wind Birds was on the 13th of November 2012 with at least 3 males and they were at a very dry, coastal area. They were seen for a couple of weeks on the same area.
Occured in Madeira, Ilhéu Chão, Azores, Canary and Cape Verde Islands (Aguiar & Karsholt, 2006)
Regional status according to Aguiar & Karsholt, 2008: Migrant to Madeira and Desertas Islands
Regional status according to Wakeham-Dawson et al., 2001: Doubtful record
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