Acraea natalica, the Natal acraea, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae, which is native to East and southern Africa.
It is found from KwaZulu-Natal to Zimbabwe and in Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, southern DRC (Katanga), Tanzania and eastern Kenya.
The wingspan is 55âÂÂ65 mm. Adults are on wing year round, with a strong peak in late summer in southern Africa.<br /> A. natalica Bdv. (55 f) varies greatly in size, but is on an average larger than the following species [in its subgroup], having an expanse of 46 to 80 mm. The ground-colour of the wings above is reddish to orange-yellow or brown- yellow and occasionally in the females on the hindwing much darkened, dark red-brown; both wings at the base blackish to about vein 2; the forewing with apical spot 4 to 5 mm. in breadth and black fringes, sometimes also with the veins narrowly black; a basal dot in the cell and in 1b at the outer edge of the black basal spot; discal dots 4 to 6, 9 and 10 united into a transverse streak placed almost vertically to the costal margin; submarginal dots in 1b to 3; hindwing with unspotted or indistinctly spotted black marginal band 4 to 5 mm. in breadth, which in the male is sharply defined, but in the female sometimes shades into the darkened ground-colour without sharp delimitation. Wings beneath lighter, not darkened at the base; forewing without dark apical spot; hind wing with bright red spots between the basal dots and between the discal dots and the marginal band at least in 1b to 3; the marginal band with large yellow marginal spots and always sharply defined proximally. South and East Africa to Angola, southern Congo and British East Africa.<br />Larva light yellow with white lateral line, white, black-edged dorsal line and a black streak on each side. Pupa yellowish white with black markings.
The larvae feed on Adenia gummifera, Passiflora species (including P. coerulea) and Tricliceras longipedunculatum.
It is a member of the Acraea caecilia species group. See also Pierre & Bernaud, 2014