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

Description

The wingspan is 40–45 mm in males and 50–58 mm in females.
The species of this group 'zoolina'' groupdiffer from all others in the hindwing having in the male only one long tail, at vein 2, but in the female two, at veins 2 and 4.
''Ch. zoolina'' occurs in three local races, each with a greenish and a brown or brown-yellow form. The greenish white forms differ from '' kahldeni'' in the broad dark marginal band on the upperside of the wing and the yellow-brown forms from ''homeyeri'' [= ''kahldeni'' in the absence of the longitudinal stripe in cellule 1 c on the hindwing beneath.- ''zoolina'' Westw. wings with the ground-colour greenish white; forewing above with the costal margin, a transverse spot at the end of the cell and the apical area black, the latter more or less spotted with white; hindwing with a black marginal band, 4-5mm. in breadth, with small white dots. Wings beneath almost as above, but with larger white spots in the marginal bands, common black median band and black longitudinal stripe in cellule 1 c of the hindwing; distal margin of the hindwing scarcely appreciably angled at vein 4. The female is larger and has the light spots in the marginal bands much larger and joined together; hindwing above with yellowish marginal streaks. Natal to Uganda and Abyssinia, f. ''neanthes'' Hew. The ground-colour is lighter or darker ochre-yellow and the black markings of the type-form are replaced by ferruginous or dark brown; occasionally they are black, ab. ''obscuratus'' Suff. Under surface irrorated with dark, without the longitudinal stripe in cellule 1 c of the hindwing. ab. ''ehmckei'' Dew. Distal margin
of the hindwing distinctly angled at vein 4. Otherwise only differs from neanthes in having both wings above broadly whitish at the base and beneath without distinct median band. Angola, f. ''phanera'' Jord. has in the male a distinct angle at vein 4 of the hindwing and less extended black markings on the forewing, but otherwise agrees with ''zoolina''. Angola. ab. ''betsimisaraka'' Luc. occurs on Madagascar and only differs from ''zoolina'' in the hindwing of the male having a distinct though small tooth at the end of vein 4 and in the transverse streak at the end of the cell of the forewing only reaching the base of vein 3. f. ''betanimena'' Luc. corresponds to f. ''neanthes'', but is darker and with the marginal band darker rust-brown and more continuous.

The hindwing in the male distinctly toothed at vein 4. Wings beneath without median band, or with this sharply pronounced and margined with white [is] ab. ''andriba'' Ward. Madagascar.

Biology

Flight period is from October to June. The habitat is Afrotropics, forest.

Larvae feed on ''Entada'' - '' Entada spicata'', ''Entada abyssinica'', '' Entada natalensis'', '' Acacia natalitia'', ''Acacia schweinfurthi'', '' Acacia brevispica'', and '' Acacia kraussiana''.

Subspecies

Listed alphabetically.
*''C. z. betsimisaraka'' Lucas, 1872 (Madagascar)
*''C. z. ehmckei'' Homeyer and Dewitz, 1882 (Angola)
*''C. z. mafugensis'' Jackson, 1956Jackson, T.H.E. 1956. Notes on the Rhopalocera of the Kigezi district of Uganda with descriptions of new species and subspecies. ''Journal of the East Africa Natural History Society'' 23: 63-102. (south-western Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, north-western Tanzania)
*''C. z. zoolina'' (Westwood, 850 (southern Sudan, southern Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, northern Botswana, north-eastern Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini)

Taxonomy

''Charaxes zoolina'' is a member of the species group ''Charaxes zoolina''.
The clade members are

*''Charaxes zoolina'' Nominate
*'' Charaxes kahldeni''

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

Seitz, A. ''Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde'' 13: Die Afrikanischen Tagfalter. Plate XIII 32
''b''
*Victor Gurney Logan Van Someren, 1974 Revisional notes on African ''Charaxes'' (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Part IX. ''Bulletin of the British Museum of Natural History'' (Entomology) 29 (8):415-487

External links

Images of ''C. zoolina zoolina''
Royal Museum for Central Africa (Albertine Rift Project)
Images of ''C. zoolina mafugensis''
(Albertine Rift Project)

Images
Images
at Bold ''Charaxes zoolina''
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''Charaxes zoolina zoolina''
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''Charaxes zoolina betsimisaraka''
''Charaxes mafugensis'' images
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''Charaxes ehmckei'' images
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''Charaxes betsimisaraka'' images
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zoolina
Butterflies described in 1850
Butterflies of Africa
Taxa named by John O. Westwood

{{Charaxinae-stub