Pentila abraxas abraxas

Pentila abraxas abraxas Doubleday, Westwood and Hewitson
Liptena abraxas Doubleday, Westwood and Hewitson, 1852 [1846-1852]: pi. 77, fig. 5. Pentila abraxas: Aurivillius, 1914 [1908-1925]: 309; pi. 61g (poor). Pentila a. abraxas: Stempffer and Bennett, 1961: 1180; fig. 109. Stempffer, 1963b: 424.
=Pentila tripunctata Aurivillius, 1895b: 197; 1914 [1908-1925]: 309; pi. 61h. Stempffer and Bennett, 1956: 503.
The species ranges in several subspecies from Sierra Leone and Guinea eastward to northeastern Congo and south to Gabon.
It is difficult to understand the distribution of the subspecies of abraxas. Two subspecies are relevant here: a. abraxas (forewing with three black spots in disc — one in cell, one at cell-end and one below origin of Cui; apical patch narrow, ending posteriorly at Ma; base of wing yellow) and abraxas phidia Hewitson (forewing also with three black discal spots; apical patch reduced to vein-end spots, confluent costad; costa and termen broadly orange-yellow; see also below).
The range of a. abraxas includes (records of Stempffer and Bennett and of Carnegie Museum) Sierra Leone, interior Liberia and adjacent Guinea. The range of phidia extends from Ivory Coast eastward to Togo. However, the type of a. abraxas is from Ashanti (Ghana), deep in phidia territory. Stempffer and Bennett cite phidia from Sierra Leone (territory of a. abraxas) while forms connecting a. abraxas and abraxas maculata Kirby (additional spots on forewing; border heavier; ground white, yellow only in base) occur in southern Nigeria, northern Cameroon, etc. In other words, the range of phidia intervenes geographically between a. abraxas and abraxas maculata yet is very different from both and has no part in the clinal variation evident between the two. Despite identity of the male genitalia, I suspect that phidia may prove to be a distinct species.
Liberia: Kpain, I, VIII, IX; Kitoma, VIII; Yamein, I (Stempffer and Bennett, 1956) ; Zorzor Road near Gbanga, V (Fox) (1, sex not determinable, badly worn and broken).
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Fig. 167, Pentila hewitsoni hewitsoni Smith & Kirby, Wanau Forest, Liberia, male upperside (x 1.4). Fig. 168, same specimen, underside. Fig. 169, Pentila hewitsoni limbata Holland, Kangwe, Ogove R., Gabon, male upperside (x 1.3). Fig. 170, same specimen, underside. Fig. 171, Pentila hewitsoni limbata Holland, form "limbata", Kangwe, Ogove R., Gabon (holotype of Teriomima limbata Holland), female upperside (x 1.3). Fig. 172, same specimen, underside.