Charaxes zoolina

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

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

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. "Charaxes Ochsenheimer, 1816" at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms
  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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