''Charaxes doubledayi'', Doubleday's untailed charaxes, is a

butterfly Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

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 ha ...

. 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 to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

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

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

Togo Togo, officially the Togolese Republic, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to Ghana–Togo border, the west, Benin to Benin–Togo border, the east and Burkina Faso to Burkina Faso–Togo border, the north. It is one of the le ...

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

Bioko Bioko (; ; ; historically known as Fernando Pó, ) is an island of Equatorial Guinea. It is located south of the coast of Cameroon, and northwest of the northernmost part of mainland Equatorial Guinea. Malabo, on the north coast of the is ...

, the

Republic of the Congo The Republic of the Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo), is a country located on the western coast of Central ...

, the

Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to Central African Republic–Chad border, the north, Sudan to Central African Republic–Sudan border, the northeast, South Sudan to Central ...

, the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

and western

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

. The habitat consists of lowland tropical evergreen forests. It is a very rare butterfly Larsen, T.B. 2005. ''Butterflies of West Africa''. Apollo Books, Svendborg, Denmark: 1-595 (text) & 1-270 (plates).

Description

Very similar to '' Charaxes mycerina'' but antennae much darker, the blue scaling in the cell of the forewing denser and more extended, forewing with admarginal blue spots, band of hindwing of male not interrupted at R1. On the underside the cell-bar of forewing more straight, more obliquely placed, its upper end being only 1.5 mm. distant from base of R1, median bars also straighter, the

bistre Bistre (or bister) is a pigment made from soot. Historically, beechwood was burned to produce the soot, which was boiled and diluted with water. Many Old Masters used bistre as the ink for their wash paintings. Bistre's appearance is generall ...

brown outer marginal band more sharply defined, the clay coloured area between it and the disco-postdiscal line divided by a band of bistre brown patches; median bar M2 SM2 straight or distally convex; costal median bar of hindwing 3 or 4 mm. more distal than bar C- SC2; the white borders of the bars of both wings much more prominent than in ''Charaxes mycerina''; anal angle less produced.

Taxonomy

''Charaxes doubledayi'' is a member of the

species group In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

'' Charaxes lycurgus''. The supposed

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

members are: Clade 1 *'' Charaxes lycurgus'' nominate *''

Charaxes porthos ''Charaxes porthos'', the Porthos untailed charaxes, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, the Democra ...

'' *'' Charaxes zelica'' Clade 2 *'' Charaxes mycerina'' *''Charaxes doubledayi''

References

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 dentis ...

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

External links

''Charaxes doubledayi'' 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 ...

Images of ''C. doubledayi''

Royal Museum for Central Africa The Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA) (; ; ), communicating under the name AfricaMuseum since 2018, is an ethnography and natural history museum situated in Tervuren in Flemish Brabant, Belgium, just outside Brussels. It was originally b ...

(Albertine Rift Project)
African Butterfly Database
Range map via search Butterflies described in 1899 doubledayi Butterflies of Africa Taxa named by Per Olof Christopher Aurivillius {{Charaxinae-stub