Leptosia alcesta

Leptosia alcesta, the African wood white or flip flop, is a butterfly of the family Pieridae, found in Africa.^[1]

African wood white
Both L. a. inalcesta Mabibi, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Pieridae
Genus:	Leptosia
Species:	L. alcesta
Binomial name
Leptosia alcesta (Stoll, [1782])[1]
Synonyms
Papilio alcesta Stoll, [1782] Papilio narica Fabricius, 1793 Pseudopontia cepheus Ehrmann, 1894 Leucophasia sylvicola Boisduval, 1833

The wingspan is 30–40 mm in males and 35–42 mm in females. The adults fly year-round, peaking from March to May.^[2]

The larvae feed on Ritchiea species, Capparis fascicularis, and Capparis brassii.^[2]

Subspecies

• L. a. alcesta (Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo, Central African Republic, Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo)
• L. a. inalcesta Bernardi, 1959 (Uganda, southern Sudan, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, eastern Zimbabwe, South Africa, Swaziland)
• L. a. pseudonuptilla Bernardi, 1959 (Democratic Republic of the Congo to Ethiopia)
• L. a. sylvicola (Boisduval, 1833) (Madagascar)

• 
  L. a. alcesta, Ghana
• 
  L. a. inalcesta,In flight
• 
  Worn specimen with the appearance of a face
• 
  L. a. sylvicola, Madagascar