Charaxes zoolina

Club-tailed emperor
Male wet-season form and female dry-season form (as neanthes)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Nymphalidae
Genus: Charaxes
Species: C. zoolina
Binomial name
Charaxes zoolina
(Westwood, [1850])
Synonyms
  • Nymphalis zoolina Westwood, [1850]
  • Nymphalis neanthes Hewitson, 1854
  • Charaxes neanthes obscuratus Suffert, 1904
  • Charaxes zoolina-neanthes f. homochroa Le Cerf, 1923
  • Charaxes neanthes f. pallidior Rousseau-Decelle, 1938
  • Charaxes betsimisaraka Lucas, 1872
  • Charaxes betanimena Lucas, 1872
  • Charaxes andriba Ward, 1873
  • Charaxes relatus Butler, 1880
  • Nymphalis freyi Brancsik, 1892
  • Charaxes zoolina-betsimisaraka f. firmus Le Cerf, 1923
  • Charaxes lambertoni Lathy, 1925
  • Charaxes zoolina f. franouxi Rousseau-Decelle, 1938
  • Charaxes ehmckei Homeyer & Dewitz, 1882
  • Charaxes zoolina f. phanera Jordan, 1908
  • Charaxes zoolina ehmckei lineata Bivar de Sousa, 1992
  • Charaxes zoolina mafugensis f. kivu Turlin, 1980
  • Charaxes zoolina mafugensis f. wincka Turlin, 1980

Charaxes zoolina, the club-tailed emperor or club-tailed charaxes, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found in southern Africa.[1]

The wingspan is 40–45 mm in males and 50–58 mm in females. Flight period is from October to June.[2]

Larvae feed on Entada - Entada spicata, Entada abyssinica, Entada natalensis, Acacia natalitia, Acacia schweinfurthi, Acacia brevispica, and Acacia kraussiana.[1][2]

Female, under and upperside

Subspecies

Listed alphabetically.[1]

  • C. z. betsimisaraka Lucas, 1872 (Madagascar)
  • C. z. ehmckei Dewitz, 1882 (Angola)
  • C. z. mafugensis Jackson, 1956 (south-western Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, north-western Tanzania)
  • C. z. zoolina (Westwood, [1850]) (southern Sudan, southern Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, northern Botswana, north-eastern Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland)

Taxonomy

Charaxes zoolina is a member of the species group Charaxes zoolina. The clade members are

The group differs from all the others in Charaxes in the male having a tail on vein 2, but the female having two long tails on veins 2, 4. There are two different forms, one with black markings on a greenish white base colour (wet-season form) and one with reddish-brown markings on red-yellow whitish colour (dry-season form). These forms can be from eggs of the same female.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Charaxes Ochsenheimer, 1816" at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms
  2. 1 2 Woodhall, Steve (2005). Field Guide to Butterflies of South Africa. Cape Town, South Africa: Struik. ISBN 978-1-86872-724-7.
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