Charaxes etesipe

Charaxes etesipe, the savannah charaxes or scarce forest emperor, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae.

Charaxes etesipe
C. e. etesipe from Cameroon - dorsal view
C. e. etesipe from Cameroon - ventral view
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Nymphalidae
Genus: Charaxes
Species:
C. etesipe
Binomial name
Charaxes etesipe
(Godart, 1824)[1]
Synonyms
  • Nymphalis etesipe Godart, 1824
  • Nymphalis etheta Godart, 1824
  • Charaxes etesipe etesipe f. castoroides Poulton, 1926
  • Charaxes etesipe f. caeruleotincta Carpenter, 1945
  • Charaxes tavetensis Rothschild, 1894

Description

The wingspan is 35–38 millimetres (1.4–1.5 in) for male. The females are larger, reaching 37–45 millimetres (1.5–1.8 in).

The uppersides of the forewings are blackish blue with a greenish tint. The outer margin are generally denticulate (tooth like), with a series of white discal spots. In the hindwings of both sexes there are short tails and a complete series of large pale blue patches. The undersides of the wings are variegated with cream and drab colours.

Adults are on wing from August to October and from March to June. There are two generations per year.[2]

The larvae of subspecies tavetensis feed on Afzelia quanzensis, Dalbergia nitidula, Securidaca longipeduncularis and Margaritaria discoidea. Other subspecies have been recorded on Entada and Afzelia quanzensis.

Distribution

This species can be found in tropical east and west Africa and in Madagascar.

Taxonomy

Charaxes etesipe is a member of the species group Charaxes etesipe

The clade members are:

Subspecies
  • C. e. abyssinicus from Ethiopia
  • C. e. etesipe from Cameroon - dorsal view
  • C. e. etesipe from Cameroon - ventral view
gollark: But using actual relational databases can provide faster access, transactions, fast search, not having to deal with XML, that sort of thing.
gollark: I like SQLite.
gollark: What would be neat is if we used SQLite databases instead of stupid stuff like `.docx`'s weird zipped XML thing.
gollark: So it's a poorly optimised file format?
gollark: All documents should just be HTML always all the time.

References
  1. Savela, Markku (March 23, 2019). "Charaxes etesipe (Godart, [1824])". Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms. Retrieved February 4, 2020.
  2. Woodhall, Steve (2005). Field Guide to Butterflies of South Africa. Cape Town, South Africa: Struik. ISBN 978-1-86872-724-7.
  • Victor Gurney Logan Van Someren (1966). Revisional notes on African Charaxes (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Part III. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) (Entomology) 45-101.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.