Charaxes tiridates

Charaxes tiridates
	Female, upperside
	Female, underside
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Nymphalidae
Genus:	Charaxes
Species:	C. tiridates
Binomial name
	Charaxes tiridates; (Cramer, 1777)
Synonyms
	Papilio tiridates Cramer, 1777; Papilio marica Fabricius, 1793; Charaxes tiridatinus Röber, 1936; Charaxes tiridates ab. tristis Schultze, 1914; Charaxes angusticaudatus Röber, 1936; Charaxes tiridates f. purpurina Rousseau-Decelle, 1938; Charaxes lucretius f. alberici Dufrane, 1945; Charaxes tiridates ab. conjuncta Storace, 1948; Charaxes tiridates ab. subcaerulea Storace, 1948; Charaxes hysginus Darge, 1978;

Charaxes tiridates, the common blue charaxes, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Senegal, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, Angola and Zambia.^[3] The habitat consists of lowland evergreen forests and dense savanna.

The larvae feed on , , , , Chaetacme aristata, Celtis africana, , , Grewia mollis, Afzelia africana, Flacourtia indica, , Osyris lanceolata, , , Bombax buonopozense, Albizia, Berlinia, Lonchocarpus, Hibiscus (including Hibiscus calyphyllus), Trema, Cassia, Dalbergia, Macrolobium, Millettia and Pterocarpus species.

Savanna forest mosaic in Ghana

Original illustration in Pieter Cramer and Caspar Stoll's Uitlandsche Kapellen, male

Feeding on fermented plantain in a fruit garden. Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Description[]

Male upperside forewings have a black ground colour glossed blue. There is a discal arc of five or so spots and a postdiscal sinuous line of eight to ten spots. These spots are light blue and slightly metallic. The margin has pale amorphous lunules. The hindwing has two postdiscal rows of the light blue spots, the second close to the margin which has pale more lineate lunules. There are two short tails.

The female upperside has light brown basal areas, more extensive on the hindwing. There is a discal band of white marks just inside the much darker distal part of the forewing and two apical white spots. On the hindwing the dark area is narrow has seven or so light blue and slightly metallic spots with some white scales. There are pale marginal lunules and one long and one short tail.

The underside wings are variously light brown with black pattern lines and in the female only a white discal band.

A full description is given by Walter Rothschild and Karl Jordan, 1900 Novitates Zoologicae Volume 7:287-524. [1] page 354 for terms see Volume 5:545-601 [2]

Taxonomy[]

Charaxes tiridates group.

The supposed clade members are:

Charaxes tiridates
Charaxes numenes - similar to next
Charaxes bipunctatus - similar to last
Charaxes violetta
Charaxes fuscus
Charaxes mixtus
Charaxes bubastis
Charaxes albimaculatus
Charaxes barnsi
Charaxes bohemani
Charaxes schoutedeni
Charaxes monteiri
Charaxes smaragdalis
Charaxes xiphares
Charaxes cithaeron
Charaxes nandina
Charaxes imperialis
Charaxes ameliae
Charaxes pythodoris
? Charaxes overlaeti

For a full list see Eric Vingerhoedt, 2013.^[4]

Subspecies[]

Charaxes tiridates tiridates (eastern Senegal, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, western Nigeria)
Charaxes tiridates choveti Turlin, 1998^[5] (Bioko)
Charaxes tiridates marginatus Rothschild & Jordan, 1903^[6] (western and south-western Ethiopia)
Charaxes tiridates tiridatinus Röber, 1936^[7] (Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, western and southern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, western Kenya, north-western Tanzania, Angola, northern Zambia)

References[]

^ Cramer, P. [1777]. De Uitlandsche Kapellen voorkomende in de drie waereld-deelen Asia, Africa en America. Amsteldam & Utrecht. 2: 151 pp
^ "Charaxes Ochsenheimer, 1816" at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms
^ Afrotropical Butterflies: File H - Charaxinae - Tribe Charaxini
^ "African Charaxes/Charaxes Africains Eric Vingerhoedt, 2013". Archived from the original on 2013-06-27.
^ Turlin, B. 1998 [New African Charaxinae (Lepidoptera Nymphalidae). Lambillionea 98 (2) (Tome I): 181-189.
^ Rothschild, W & Jordan, K. 1903 Lepidoptera collected by Oscar Neumann in northeast Africa. Novitates Zoologicae 10: 491-542.
^ Röber, J. 1936. Uber einige afrikanische Charaxes – Arten und andere exotische Falter. Entomologische Rundschau 53: 575-580.

Victor Gurney Logan Van Someren, 1972 Revisional notes on African Charaxes (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Part VIII. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) (Entomology) 215-264.[3]
Seitz, A. Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde 13: Die Afrikanischen Tagfalter. Plate XIII 31

External links[]

Images of C. tiridates tiridates Royal Museum for Central Africa (Albertine Rift Project)
Images of C. tiridates tiridatinus (Albertine Rift Project)
Charaxes tiridates images at BOLD
Charaxes tiridates tiridates images at BOLD
Charaxes tiridates marginatus images at BOLD
Charaxes tiridates tiridatinus images at BOLD

[1] Cramer, P. [1777]. De Uitlandsche Kapellen voorkomende in de drie waereld-deelen Asia, Africa en America. Amsteldam & Utrecht. 2: 151 pp

[funet-2] "Charaxes Ochsenheimer, 1816" at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms

[ATBUT-3] Afrotropical Butterflies: File H - Charaxinae - Tribe Charaxini

[4] "African Charaxes/Charaxes Africains Eric Vingerhoedt, 2013". Archived from the original on 2013-06-27.

[5] Turlin, B. 1998 [New African Charaxinae (Lepidoptera Nymphalidae). Lambillionea 98 (2) (Tome I): 181-189.

[6] Rothschild, W & Jordan, K. 1903 Lepidoptera collected by Oscar Neumann in northeast Africa. Novitates Zoologicae 10: 491-542.

[7] Röber, J. 1936. Uber einige afrikanische Charaxes – Arten und andere exotische Falter. Entomologische Rundschau 53: 575-580.

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