Charaxes cithaeron
Species of butterfly
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Charaxes cithaeron, the blue-spotted emperor or blue-spotted charaxes, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found in south-east Africa.[2]
| Blue-spotted emperor | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Figure 2 male, 3 female | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Clade: | Pancrustacea |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Family: | Nymphalidae |
| Genus: | Charaxes |
| Species: | C. cithaeron |
| Binomial name | |
| Charaxes cithaeron | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Full description
The wingspan is 70–80 mm in males and 85–95 mm in females. Ch. cithaeron Fldr. male: forewing above black with two transverse rows of blue spots; the proximal row in the middle, composed of 6 spots (2 in cellule lb and one each in 2-5), the distal consists of 8 spots, of which the first, in 6 and 7, are white; an elongate blue spot in la beyond the middle. Hindwing above beyond the middle with a broad transverse band, posteriorly whitish and anteriorly blue, blue submarginal spots and whitish marginal streaks. The basal part of the under surface with irregularly arranged, black, white-edged transverse streaks. The female has on the upperside a broad, curved white transverse band, proximally sharply defined, on the forewing and a bluish white transverse band on the hindwing and is hence very similar above to the female of violetta East Africa from Natal to Kenia in British East Africa. [3]
A full description is also given by Walter Rothschild and Karl Jordan (1900). Novitates Zoologicae Volume 7:287-524. page 379-382 (for terms see Novitates Zoologicae Volume 5:545-601 )
Biology
Flight period is year-round.[4] Larvae feed on Trema orientalis, Albizia adianthifolia, Celtis africana, Cola natalensis, Chaerachme aristata, Bafia racemosa, Afzelia quanzensis, Milletia sutherlandi, Maytenus senegalensis, and Craibia brevecaudatus.[2][4] Notes on the biology of cithaeron are given by Pringle et al (1994), and Kielland, J. (1990).[5][6]
Habitat
Forested areas from the coastal belt to the Kenya Highlands.
Subspecies
Listed alphabetically.[2]
- C. c. cithaeron C. & R. Felder, 1859 (Tanzania, Mozambique, eastern Zimbabwe, South Africa, Eswatini)
- C. c. joanae van Someren, 1964 [7] (Zambia, northern Zimbabwe and possibly the Tukuyu District of Tanzania)
- C. c. kennethi Poulton, 1926 [8] (coast of Kenya, eastern Tanzania)
- C. c. nairobicus van Son, 1953 [9](Kenya: central highlands east of the Rift Valley)
- C. c. nyasae van Someren, 1964 (Malawi)
Taxonomy
Similar to Charaxes xiphares but the female has a much wider forewing white band. Also similar to Charaxes violetta, which has straight white lines on the underside (these are irregular in Charaxes cithaeron) [10] Kielland discusses the great variability both within and between the various described subspecies and implies that the species is not divisible into definable subspecies.
