Amauris niavius
Male, dorsal side
Ventral side, Bobiri Forest, Ghana
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Nymphalidae
Genus:	Amauris
Species:	A. niavius
Binomial name
Amauris niavius (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms
Papilio niavius Linnaeus, 1758 Amauris obliterata Dufrane, 1948 Amauris partita Talbot, 1941 Amauris dominicanus Trimen, 1879

Amauris niavius, the friar, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found in the forests of tropical Africa.

The wingspan is 80–85 mm for males and 78–82 mm for females. Adults are on wing year-round (with peaks in late summer and autumn).^[1]

The larvae feed on Cynanchum (including C. medium, C. nigrum and C. vincetoxicum), Gymnema (including G. sylvestre), Marsdenia, Secamone, Vincetoxicum (syn. Tylophora) and Ipomoea. Larvae of subspecies dominicanus feed on Gymnema sylvestre.^[2]

Subspecies

• Amauris niavius niavius (from western Kenya to Zaire, Angola, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Fernando Pó (Macías Nguema Island))
• Amauris niavius dominicanus Trimen, 1879 (Natal, Mozambique, from Rhodesia to Malawi, eastern Tanzania and Kenya east of the Rift Valley)
• Amauris niavius aethiops Rothschild & Jordan, 1903 (Ethiopia, northern Uganda, southern Sudan)