21-2-2026 MADIKWE GAME RESERVE, S AFRICA - SPOTTED JOKER (Byblia ilithyia)

Byblia ilithyia, the spotted joker or joker, is a species of nymphalid butterfly found in parts of Africa and Asia.

22-4-2018 OKAVANGO DELTA, BOTSWANA - SPOTTED JOKER (Byblia ilithyia)

Byblia anvatara, the common joker, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae, found in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Wingspan: 38–43 mm in males and 40–45 mm in females. Its flight period is year round.

Larvae feed on Tragia glabrata and Dalechampia capensis.

Subspecies

Listed alphabetically:

B. a. acheloia (Wallengren, 1857) – Yemen, south-western Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, eastern Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, northern Namibia, Eswatini, South Africa: Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape

B. a. anvatara (Boisduval, 1833) – Madagascar, Comoros

B. a. boydi Dixey, 1898 – Socotra

B. a. crameri Aurivillius, 1894 – eastern Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria: south and the Cross River loop, Cameroon to Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Tanzania: north-west to the Kagera Region