Appias sylvia

Appias sylvia, the woodland albatross white or common albatross, is a butterfly in the family Pieridae. It is found in Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea (Bioko), Cameroon, the Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Ethiopia, Angola, Namibia, Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Malawi. The habitat consists of forests.

Appias sylvia
A. s. nyasana
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Pieridae
Genus:	Appias
Species:	A. sylvia
Binomial name
Appias sylvia (Fabricius, 1775)
Synonyms
Papilio sylvia Fabricius, 1775 Appias (Glutophrissa) sylvia Papilio eudoxia Cramer, 1782 Pieris rhodanus Ward, 1871 Appias bachi Suffert, 1904 Appias rhodope dopero Suffert, 1904 Appias rhodope ab. rhodopiana Strand, 1913 Appias rhodope var. tenuifascia Neustetter, 1926 Phrissura nyasana Butler, 1897 Appias rhodope f. luvuensis Joicey and Talbot, 1927 Appias perlucens f. masabae Stoneham, 1957 Appias sylvia luvuensis f. xerophyla Berger, 1981

Males come to damp patches and both sexes are attracted to flowers.

The larvae feed on Drypetes (including Drypetes ugandensis and Drypetes gerrardii), Phyllanthus and Ritchiea species.

Subspecies

• A. s. sylvia (Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, southern Nigeria, Bioko, Cameroon, Congo, Central African Republic, northern Democratic Republic of the Congo)
• A. s. abyssinica Talbot, 1932 (south-western Ethiopia)
• A. s. nyasana (Butler, 1897) (Democratic Republic of the Congo, north-eastern Namibia, north-eastern Zambia, western Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi)
• A. s. sudanensis Talbot, 1932 (southern Sudan)
• A. s. zairiensis Berger, 1981 (Democratic Republic of the Congo)

References

• Seitz, A. Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde 13: Die Afrikanischen Tagfalter. Plate XIII 12