Charaxes violetta

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Violet-spotted Emperor
Male Figures 1, 2 female figure 8
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Nymphalidae
Genus: Charaxes
Species: C. violetta
Binomial name
Charaxes violetta
Grose-Smith, 1885

The Violet-spotted Emperor or Violet-spotted Charaxes (Charaxes violetta) is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found in southern Africa.[1]

The wingspan is 65–70 mm in males and 75–85 mm in females. Species is double brooded from August to October and April to June.[2]

Larvae feed on Blighia (Blighia unijugata) and Deinbollia species.[1][2]

Original Description

Charaxes Violetta.

Upper-side. male. Anterior-wings dark brown, suffused slightly with violet, with a curved row of violet-blue spots across the middle of the wings, and a sub-marginal row of similar spots from near the costa to the inner margin, the lower half of the two rows becoming confluent, the two sub-marginal spots near the apex nearly white. Posterior-wings with a broad central band of violet-blue, suffused with white from the second sub-costal nervule to the abdominal fold near the anal angle ; above this band are two pairs of violet-blue spots, a sub-marginal row of seven small spots, and a row of elongated spots on the margin on each side of the nervules, all violet-blue suffused with white.female. Anterior-wings with a broad curved band across the centre of the wings from the costa to the inner margin, and two white transverse spots near the apex. Posterior-wings : the inner half, from near the base, white, suffused with violet, a sub-marginal row of small white spots, and a marginal white line intercepted by the nervures, both suffused with violet.

Under-side. Both wings as in Ch. cithaeron except that the central black line across both wings, which is broadly bordered on the outside with white, is straight and continuous, not irregular and interrupted as in cithaeron.

This species on the upper-side has a general resemblance to cithaeron it is more violet-blue, and is smaller in size, particularly the female, which is not so large as the male cithaeron while the under-side of both sexes is very distinct from cithaeron Expanse 3 and 1/8 in. Hab. : Delagoa Bay.

London : February, 1885.

Full Description

  • Rothschild, W. And Jordan, K., 1900 Novitates Zoologicae Volume 7:287-524. page 372 for terms see Volume 5:545-601

Taxonomy

Charaxes tiridates group

the supposed clade members are

For a full list see Eric Vingerhoedt, 2013 [3]

Subspecies

Listed alphabetically.[1]

  • C. v. maritima van Someren, 1966 (coast of Kenya, Tanzania: north-east to the coast)
  • C. v. melloni Fox, 1963 (Mozambique, eastern Zimbabwe, Malawi, eastern Tanzania)
  • C. v. meru van Someren, 1966 (Kenya: north-eastern slopes of Mount Kenya and in the Njombeni Hills)
  • C. v. violetta Grose-Smith, 1885 (southern Mozambique, South Africa: KwaZulu-Natal)

Ecozone

Afrotropical ecozone

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Charaxes, funet.fi
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Woodhall, Steve. Field Guide to Butterflies of South Africa, Cape Town:Struik Publishers, 2005
  3. ↑ "African Charaxes/Charaxes Africains Eric Vingerhoedt, 2013". 

External links

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