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 ...
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 ...
, 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 ...
,
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 ...
, 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 ...
and
Tanzania
Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...
''Ch. mixtus'' Rothsch. The male is very similar to that of '' tiridates'' and only differs in having the marginal spots of the forewing short and whitish and the marginal streaks of the hindwing thick, undivided, blue; the blue spots behind the middle of the hindwing are also much larger than in tiridates. The female is considerably larger than the male but similar in colour and markings, hence entirely different from ''tiridates'' female . Cameroons
and Congo.
Biology
The habitat consists of lowland forests.
Notes on the biology of ''mixtus'' are given by Kielland (1990)
Taxonomy
''
Charaxes tiridates
''Charaxes tiridates'', the common blue charaxes, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Senegal, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Gabon, the Repu ...
'' group
The supposed
clade
A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...
members are:
*''
Charaxes tiridates
''Charaxes tiridates'', the common blue charaxes, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Senegal, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Gabon, the Repu ...
''
*''
Charaxes numenes
''Charaxes numenes'', the lesser blue charaxes, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Gabon, the Republic o ...
'' similar to next
*''
Charaxes bipunctatus
''Charaxes bipunctatus'', the two-spot blue charaxes, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Repu ...
'' similar to last
*''
Charaxes violetta
''Charaxes violetta'', the violet-spotted emperor or violet-spotted charaxes, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found in southern Africa.Charaxes fuscus
''Charaxes x fuscus'' is a naturally occurring hybrid between two sympatric species of butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It was found in the Central African Republic. The habitat consists of lowland evergreen forests.
Described from a single ...
''
*''Charaxes mixtus''
*''
Charaxes bubastis
''Charaxes mixtus'' is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania.
Description
''Ch. mixtus'' Rothsch. The ma ...
''
*''
Charaxes albimaculatus
''Charaxes numenes'', the lesser blue charaxes, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Gabon, the Republic o ...
''
*''
Charaxes barnsi
''Charaxes barnsi'' is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found on the island of Príncipe. The species was named by James John Joicey and George Talbot in 1927.
''Charaxes barnsi'' is a large butterfly with a brown ground colour and ...
''
*''
Charaxes bohemani
''Charaxes bohemani'', the large blue emperor, large blue charaxes or divebomber charaxes, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found in eastern and southern Africa (Angola, Zaire, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Botswa ...
Charaxes monteiri
''Charaxes monteiri'' is a rare tropical butterfly of the family Nymphalidae, belonging to the Charaxinae subfamily or leafwing butterflies. It was described by Otto Staudinger in 1885.
Description
''Charaxes monteiri'' presents an important sex ...
''
*''
Charaxes smaragdalis
''Charaxes smaragdalis'', the western blue charaxes, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found from Senegal to Somalia, from Angola to Kenya and from Sudan to Egypt.
The butterfly's wingspan is 85 to 100 mm. Adults are black wi ...
Charaxes cithaeron
''Charaxes cithaeron'', the blue-spotted emperor or blue-spotted charaxes, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found in south-east Africa.Charaxes nandina
''Charaxes nandina'' is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Kenya, in the central highlands east of the Rift Valley.
Description
''Ch. nandina'' Rothsch. : forewing above black, behind the middle of the hindmargin with an oblon ...
''
*''
Charaxes imperialis
''Charaxes imperialis'', the imperial blue charaxes, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, the Republic of the Congo ...
''
*''
Charaxes ameliae
''Charaxes ameliae'', the blue-spotted charaxes, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, ...
''
*''
Charaxes pythodoris
''Charaxes pythodoris'', the powder-blue charaxes, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Angola, the Democrati ...
''
*? ''
Charaxes overlaeti
''Charaxes overlaeti'' is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Kenya.
Taxonomy
Known only from the holotype and a similar specimen captured in Kenya.
''Charaxes overlaeti'' may be a hybr ...
''
For a full list see Eric Vingerhoedt, 2013.
Subspecies
*''Charaxes mixtus mixtus'' (Cameroon, south-western Central African Republic, Gabon, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo)
*''Charaxes mixtus tanzanicus'' Kielland, 1988Kielland, J. 1988. A new subspecies of ''Charaxes mixtus'' Rothschild from western Tanzania (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae). '' Lambillionea'' 88 (1-2): 33-36. (north-western Tanzania)
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 also as ''Charaxes bubastis''