It is found in Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia.

P. umbra Drury (58 f, called male but certainly a female) is a species not yet quite accurately known, which closely approximates to the preceding [ alcinoe ].

A specimen of this form was bred by Professor Sjostedt; the larva was entirely light red, somewhat inclining to violet, with black spines; the pupa is whitish with black markings and on the back of the abdomen (on segments 3-5) armed with three pairs of long, thick spines, hooked at the tips; these spines are yellow-red at the base and the two last are longer than the rest; the head bears two long, divaricating horns, distally armed with a small tooth.

- A form very similar to P. alcinoe is usually regarded as the male of umbra, but differs in its larger size, the narrower or indistinct transverse band of the fore wing and the narrower dark marginal band on the upperside of the hindwing; as the transverse band of the forewing touches the apex of the cell, fills up the base of cellule 3 and has undivided spots in cellules 1 b and 2, it seems improbable that this male belongs to a female which differs in all these characters.

P. macarioides has the hindwing above dirty yellow-brown to beyond the middle without a distinct boundary-line between the somewhat darker basal part and the median band.