''Charaxes odysseus'' 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
The Nymphalidae are the largest family of butterflies, with more than 6,000 species distributed throughout most of the world. Belonging to the superfamily Papilionoidea, they are usually medium-sized to large butterflies. Most species have a red ...
. It is found on the island of
São Tomé
São Tomé is the capital and largest city of the Central African island country of São Tomé and Príncipe. Its name is Portuguese for " Saint Thomas". Founded in the 15th century, it is one of Africa's oldest colonial cities.
History
Álva ...
.
Otto Staudinger
Otto Staudinger (2 May 1830 – 13 October 1900) was a German entomologist and a natural history dealer considered one of the largest in the world specialising in the collection and sale of insects to museums, scientific institutions, and indi ...
in 1892.
Description
The wingspan of the male is 75 mm and the female is 95 mm. The butterfly has a black wing with brown edges, white-brown dots at the end, white line in the middle and other white-brown dots on top. Seitz- Of this rare species only the female is known. It somewhat recalls the female of ''lucretius
Titus Lucretius Carus ( , ; – ) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem ''De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, and which usually is translated into E ...
'' but is smaller, has short, obtuse tails to the hindwing and instead of the light marginal band on the hindwing a row of 6 white submarginal spots in cellules 2—7. The wings are dark umber-brown above, somewhat lighter at the base of the forewing, and have beyond the middle a narrow whitish discal band, more or less broken up into spots, two being placed in cellule 5 and two in cellule 6 of the hindwing; in the basal part of cellules 3—6 on the forewing there are also small light spots; forewing at the distal margin with light spots
in cellules lb—3. One of the many species peculiar to the island of St. Thome.
Taxonomy
It is considered part of the ''Charaxes lucretius
''Charaxes lucretius'', the violet-washed charaxes or common red charaxes, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. Description
''Ch. lucretius'' Cr. male. Wings above black with slight bluish reflection; forewing rust-brown in the cell and at th ...
'' group.
References
Further reading
* Victor Gurney Logan Van Someren
Victor Gurney Logan Van Someren (1886 in Melbourne – 24 July 1976) was a zoologist and entomologist.
Van Someren was born in Australia. He attended George Watson's College and studied zoology at University of Edinburgh. He was also a dentist ...
, 1971 Revisional notes on African ''Charaxes'' (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Part VII. ''Bulletin of the British Museum'' (Natural History) (Entomology) 181-22
External links
''Charaxes odysseus'' images
at Consortium for the Barcode of Life
The Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) was an international initiative dedicated to supporting the development of DNA barcoding as a global standard for species identification. CBOL's Secretariat Office is hosted by the National Museum of ...
Butterflies described in 1892
odysseus
Odysseus ( ; grc-gre, Ὀδυσσεύς, Ὀδυσεύς, OdysseúsOdyseús, ), also known by the Latin variant Ulysses ( , ; lat, UlyssesUlixes), is a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the ''Odyssey''. Odysse ...
Invertebrates of São Tomé and Príncipe
Endemic fauna of São Tomé Island
Butterflies of Africa
{{Charaxinae-stub