__NOTOC__ ''Charaxes ansorgei'' is a

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

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 re ...

. It is found in Sudan, the

Democratic Republic of 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. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The south ...

, Rwanda,

Burundi Burundi (, ), officially the Republic of Burundi ( rn, Repuburika y’Uburundi ; Swahili: ''Jamuhuri ya Burundi''; French: ''République du Burundi'' ), is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Gr ...

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

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 ...

Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northe ...

and

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

. The habitat consists of montane forest on altitudes between 2,000 and 3,000 meters. The larvae feed on '' Bersama abyssinica abyssinica'', '' Bersama abyssinica englerana'' and ''

Bersama paullinoides ''Bersama'' is a genus of small trees in family Francoaceae. The genus is distributed across sub-Saharan Africa. The Plant List includes this genus in family Melianthaceae. Species It contains the following species: * ''Bersama abyssinica'' ...

''.It was once considered to be a very rare species but it is relatively common in dense and inaccessible montane forests 08-18-06 - Kundalila Falls VIII

Description

Nearly allied to the preceding species ''

Charaxes brutus __NOTOC__ ''Charaxes brutus'', the white-barred emperor or white-barred Charaxes, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Africa (see subspecies section for detailed information). Its flight period is year-round. Notes on the ...

'', but has the basal part of the forewing above chestnut-brown, not black; the discal band of the hindwing is bluish white. Male- discal band of the fore wing ochre-yellow, continuous to vein 4, then broken up into spots, one each in cellules 4 and 7 and two each in 5 and 6; on the proximal side of the discal band the ground-colour forms black spots in cellules 2—6; small light marginal dots; hindwing with orange-yellow submarginal spots in cellules 2—7 and 2 blue spots in 1 c; the tail at vein 4 somewhat shorter than that at vein 2. The female is larger than the male and has the median band on the forewing white, only at the costal margin somewhat yellowish; the tails of the hindwing are longer than in the male and the anterior longer than the posterior. A full description is given by Rothschild, W. And Jordan, K., 1900 ''Novitates Zoologicae'' Volume 7:287-524

page 428-429 (for terms see ''Novitates Zoologicae'' Volume 5:545-601

Subspecies

*''C. a. ansorgei'' (Uganda: slopes of Mount Elgon, Kenya: highlands west of the Rift Valley) *''C. a. jacksoni'' Poulton, 1933 (Kenya: highlands east of the Rift Valley) *''C. a. kilimanjarica'' van Someren, 1967 (Tanzania: Kilimanjaro) *''C. a. kinyeti'' Plantrou, 1989 (Sudan (south to Imatong, Kinyeti and Didinga Mountains) *''C. a. kungwensis'' van Someren, 1967 (Tanzania: eastern shores of Lake Tanganyika) *''C. a. levicki'' Poulton, 1933 (southern highlands of Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia) *''C. a. loita'' Plantrou, 1982 (southern Kenya, northern Tanzania) *''C. a. ruandana'' Talbot, 1932 (south-western Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo) *''C. a. rydoni'' van Someren, 1967 (north-eastern Tanzania) *''C. a. simoni'' Turlin, 1987 (north-eastern Tanzania) *''C. a. ufipa'' Kielland, 1978Kielland, J. 1978. A provisional checklist of the Rhopalocera of the eastern side of Lake Tanganyika. ''Tijdschrift voor Entomologie'' 121 (4): 147-237 (western Tanzania)

Related species

Historical attempts to assemble a cluster of presumably related species into a "''Charaxes jasius'' Group" have not been wholly convincing. More recent taxonomic revision, corroborated by phylogenetic research, allow a more rational grouping congruent with cladistic relationships. Within a well-populated clade of 27 related species sharing a common ancestor approximately 16 mya during the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recent" ...

, 26 are now considered together as The ''jasius'' Group. One of the two lineages within this clade forms a robust

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic ...

group of seven species sharing a common ancestor approximately 2-3 mya, i.e. during the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58"Out of Africa again: A phylogenetic hypothesis of the genus ''Charaxes (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae)'' based on five gene regions"
. Aduse-Poku, Vingerhoedt, Wahlberg. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution (2009) 53;463–478 and are considered as the ''jasius'' subgroup. The second lineage leads to 19 other species within the Jasius group, which are split into three well-populated subgroups of closely related species. The ''jasius'' Group (26 Species): Clade 1: ''jasius'' subgroup (7 species) Clade 2: contains the well-populated three additional subgroups (19 species) of the jasius Group: called the ''brutus'', ''pollux'', and ''eudoxus'' subgroups. *the ''pollux'' subgroup (4 species): *'' Charaxes pollux'' *'' Charaxes phoebus'' *''Charaxes ansorgei'' *'' Charaxes dowsetti'' Further exploration of the phylogenetic relationships amongst existing ''Charaxes'' taxa is required to improve clarity.

References

External links

Images of ''C. ansorgei ansorgei ''

Royal Museum for Central Africa The Royal Museum for Central Africa or RMCA ( nl, Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika or KMMA; french: Musée royal de l'Afrique centrale or MRAC; german: Königliches Museum für Zentralafrika or KMZA), also officially known as the AfricaMuse ...

(Albertine Rift Project)
Images of ''C. ansorgei jacksoni ''
Royal Museum for Central Africa (Albertine Rift Project)
Images of '' C. ansorgei kungwensis ''
Royal Museum for Central Africa (Albertine Rift Project)
Images of '' C. ansorgei levicki''
Royal Museum for Central Africa (Albertine Rift Project)
Images of '' C. ansorgei ruandan''
Royal Museum for Central Africa (Albertine Rift Project)
''Charaxes ansorgei'' images
at ''Charaxes'' page

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 ...

subspecies and forms
African Butterfly Database
Range map via search {{Taxonbar, from=Q5073967 Butterflies described in 1897 ansorgei Butterflies of Africa Taxa named by Walter Rothschild

Description

Subspecies

Related species

See also

References

External links