Charaxes castor

Giant Emperor

male C. castor
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Nymphalidae
Genus:	Charaxes
Species:	C. castor
Binomial name
*Charaxes castor* (Cramer, [1775])^[1]
Synonyms
Papilio castor Cramer, 1775 (not Westwood, 1842) Charaxes castor var. godarti Aurivillius, 1899 Charaxes castor f. aginga Stoneham, 1931 Charaxes castor godarti f. severus Biederman, 1935 Charaxes castor f. flavimarginalis Stoneham, 1936 Charaxes castor var. flavifasciatus Butler, 1895 Charaxes castor var. orientalis Lanz, 1896 Charaxes castor flavifasciatus f. reimeri Rothschild, 1900 Charaxes castor flavifasciatus ab. dyscrita van Son, 1979

The Giant Emperor or Giant Charaxes (Charaxes castor) is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found throughout the Afrotropical ecozone below the Sahel.^[2]

The wingspan is 75–85 mm in males and 85–105 mm in females. The flight period is year-round but more common in late summer to autumn.^[3]

Description

♂ Charaxes castor upper side from Toupé, Ivory coast

♂ Charaxes castor underside from CAR

♀ Charaxes castor upper side from Maka, CAR

A full description is given by Rothschild, W. And Jordan, K., 1900 Novitates Zoologicae Volume 7:287-524. page 436 et seq. (for terms see Novitates Zoologicae Volume 5:545-601 )

Life history

Larvae feed on Bridelia micrantha, Afzelia quanzensis, Tragia spp., Gymnosporia spp., Maytenus senegalensis, Schotia brachypetala, Bridelia micrantha and Cassia fistula.^[2]^[3]

Subspecies

Listed alphabetically.^[2]

C. c. arthuri van Someren, 1971 (Pemba island)
C. c. castor (Cramer, [1775]) (throughout African range)
C. c. comoranus Rothschild, 1903 (Comoros)
C. c. flavifasciatus Butler, 1895 (eastern Kenya, northern and eastern Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, eastern Zimbabwe, South Africa, Swaziland)

Taxonomy

The members of the Charaxes jasius group are:

Charaxes jasius
Charaxes pelias – smaller than jasius
Charaxes hansali
Charaxes castor
Charaxes brutus – dark with white bands
Charaxes andara – Madagascar
Charaxes ansorgei
Charaxes phoebus
Charaxes pollux
Charaxes druceanus
Charaxes phraortes – Madagascar, close to next
Charaxes andranodorus – close to last
Charaxes eudoxus
Charaxes richelmanni

References

↑ Afrotropical Butterflies: File H - Charaxinae - Tribe Charaxini
1 2 3 Charaxes, funet.fi
1 2 Woodhall, Steve. Field Guide to Butterflies of South Africa, Cape Town:Struik Publishers, 2005

Victor Gurney Logan Van Someren, 1971 Revisional notes on African Charaxes (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Part VII. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) (Entomology)181-226.

External links

Charaxes castor castor images at Consortium for the Barcode of Life
Charaxes castor comoranus images at BOLD
Charaxes castor flavifasciatus images at BOLD
Images of C. castor castor Royal Museum for Central Africa (Albertine Rift Project)
African Butterfly Database Range map via search

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, April 30, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.