Dancing Amber

Telchinia serena · Order: Lepidoptera · Family: Nymphalidae

Also called: Dancing Acraea, Orange Acraea, Small Orange Acraea

No source yet on danger. We have no source yet on whether it bites, stings or damages anything.
Dancing Amber
Photo: Wynand Uys, CC BY

Dancing Amber is a very variable butterfly found across sub-Saharan Africa and from Yemen to the Cape. It is common and occurs everywhere in its range except Arabia, with many loosely defined local races. It has often been confused with the small orange acraea and the tawny coaster.

Source: Wikipedia

How to recognize it

Both sexes look similar, with a subapical band on the forewing that is separate from the red-yellow basal area; the band may be red-yellow or whitish in females, and both wings have distinct yellow marginal spots.

Source: Wikipedia

Size

The species is common and highly variable, especially among females.

Source: Wikipedia

Same family (Nymphalidae)

MonarchMonarchDanaus plexippusRed AdmiralRed AdmiralVanessa atalantaPainted LadyPainted LadyVanessa carduiGulf FritillaryGulf FritillaryDione vanillaeSpeckled WoodSpeckled WoodPararge aegeriaEuropean Peacock ButterflyEuropean Peacock ButterflyAglais io

Sources

  • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acraea_serena

Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · Wikipedia

Text written 2026-10-22 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-22.

How this page works

This is one bug's fact sheet. The colored box at the top says whether it is dangerous. Sections below cover how to recognize it, whether it is a pest, and how to deal with it. The US map shows which states have records; tap a state to see other bugs there.

Every fact on Bug FAQ comes from a named source (university extension sites, government agencies, GBIF, iNaturalist, Wikipedia). The source is linked next to each section. If we have no source for something, we leave it out.