''Charaxes hildebrandti'', the Hildebrandt's charaxes, is a

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

Gabon Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north ...

, the

Republic of the Congo The Republic of the Congo (french: République du Congo, ln, Republíki ya Kongó), also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply either Congo or the Congo, is a country located in the western coast of Central Africa to the w ...

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

, the

Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR; ; , RCA; , or , ) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the DR Congo to the south, the Republic of th ...

, the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

and

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most cent ...

. It is a rare and local species

Description

''Ch. hildebrandti'' Dew. male : wings above black with a common, straight, white, bluish-bordered transverse band, extending from vein 2 on the hindwing to vein 7 or 8 on the forewing, but in cellules 5—8 of the forewing broken up into small, rounded spots; tails of the hindwing short and obtuse. The white transverse band occurs beneath also and is here basally bounded on the hindwing by the fine, continuous and nearly straight black discal line, but on the forewing in cellules lb—3 proximally often angled at the veins so as to form a series of steps. Hindwing beneath with yellowish marginal line. The female is somewhat larger than the male and has the white transverse band broader and scarcely margined with blue, reaching the inner margin of the hindwing; otherwise it agrees with the male. Gold Coast to Angola.

Biology

Its habitat consists of lowland evergreen forests. The larvae feed on '' Dyboscia'' species.

Subspecies

*''Charaxes hildebrandti hildebrandti'' (Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, northern Angola, Central African Republic, northern and central Democratic Republic of the Congo, western Uganda) *''Charaxes hildebrandti gillesi'' Plantrou, 1973 (Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Ghana, western Nigeria) *''Charaxes hildebrandti katangensis'' Talbot, 1928 Talbot, G. 1928 New forms of African Nymphalidae (Lep. Rhop.) in the Musee du Congo,Tervueren. ''Bulletin of the Hill Museum, Witley'' 2: 229-231 (eastern and southern Democratic Republic of the Congo, north-western Zambia, Uganda: west to the Bwamba Valley)

Taxonomy

''Charaxes hildebrandti'' is a member of the large species group ''Charaxes etheocles''.

Realm

Afrotropical realm The Afrotropical realm is one of Earth's eight biogeographic realms. It includes Africa south of the Sahara Desert, the majority of the Arabian Peninsula, the island of Madagascar, southern Iran and extreme southwestern Pakistan, and the island ...

Etymology

The name honours

Johann Maria Hildebrandt Johann Maria Hildebrandt (born 13 or 19 March 1847; died 29 May 1881) was a German explorer, collector, and scientist. Biography Hildebrandt was born in Düsseldorf, Germany, to a family of painters. Originally a machine maker, he lost an eye a ...

References

* Victor Gurney Logan Van Someren, 1972 Revisional notes on African ''Charaxes'' (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Part VIII. ''Bulletin of the British Museum'' (Natural History) (Entomology)215-26

External links

''Charaxes hildebrandti'' images
at Consortium for the Barcode of Life
''Charaxes hildebrandti hildebrandti'' images
at BOLD
''Charaxes hildebrandti gillesi'' images
at BOLD
''Charaxes hildebrandti katangensis'' images
at BOLD

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

Images of ''C. hildebrandti hildebrandti''
Royal Museum for Central Africa (Albertine Rift Project)
Images of ''C. hildebrandti katangensis''
(Albertine Rift Project) Butterflies described in 1879 hildebrandti Butterflies of Africa Taxa named by Hermann Dewitz {{Charaxinae-stub