''Charaxes ethalion'', the satyr emperor or satyr 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 ...

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

Description

The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the opposite wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingsp ...

is 45–55 mm in males and 50–63 mm in females. ''Ch. ethalion'' Bdv. Very nearly allied to '' c. etheocles'' and only differing in the male in the genital armature and in the female in having the cell of the forewing above unicolorous, never with light spots. Male: wings above velvety black, almost without metallic gloss. Forewing above without marginal spots and at most with a postdiscal and a discal spot; spot in the cell often absent. Hindwing with small or indistinct whitish submarginal dots and greenish, in cellules 4–6 often red-yellow marginal streaks. The female is similar to that of ''etheocles'' f. ''etheocles'', but has no spot in the cell of the forewing. The markings are white, ochre-yellow or bluish. Cape to British East Africa. — Larva unicolorous green with a yellowish-bordered spot on the sixth segment. —ab. ''kitungulensis'' Strand has two postdiscal spots in 6 and 7, but no other light spots on the forewing. German East Africa. A full description is also given by Rothschild, W. And Jordan, K., 1900 ''Novitates Zoologicae'' Volume 7:478-47

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

Biology

The habitat is forest and dense moist savanna, including Miombo, Brachystegia woodland. Larvae feed on ''

Albizia ''Albizia'' is a genus of more than 160 species of mostly fast-growing subtropical and tropical trees and shrubs in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae. The genus is pantropical, occurring in Asia, Africa, Madagascar, America and A ...

'' spp., '' Newtonia buchananii,

Peltophorum africanum __NOTOC__ ''Peltophorum africanum'', the weeping wattle, is a semi-deciduous to deciduous flowering tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, ...

'', ''

Dichrostachys cinerea ''Dichrostachys cinerea'', known as sicklebush, Bell mimosa, Chinese lantern tree or Kalahari Christmas tree (South Africa), is a legume of the genus '' Dichrostachys'' in the family Fabaceae. Other common names include omubambanjobe (Tooro Uga ...

'', '' Acacia ataxacantha'', and '' Scutia myrtina''. Notes on the biology of ''ethalion'' are given by Pringle et al. (1994), and Kielland, J. (1990).

Subspecies

Listed alphabetically: *''C. e. binghami'' Henning, 1982 (Zambia, northern Zimbabwe) *''C. e. ethalion'' Boisduval, 1847 (Mozambique, eastern Zimbabwe, Eswatini, South Africa: Limpopo Province, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal) *''C. e. fisheri'' Henning, 1982 (Zambia: north to the southern part of Lake Tanganyika) *''C. e. handmani'' Henning, 1982 (Malawi: south to the Mlanje district) *''C. e. kikuyuensis'' van Someren, 1967 (Kenya: highlands east of the Rift Valley) *''C. e. kitungulensis'' Strand, 1911.Strand, E . 1911 Zoologische Ergebnisse der Expedition des Herrn Hauptman a, D. Fromm 1908/09 nach Deutsch-Ostafrika. 1. Lepidoptera. ''Mitteilungen aus dem Zoologischen Museum in Berlin'' 5: 275-304. (Tanzania, Malawi, Democratic Republic of the Congo: Lualaba, Shaba, Maniema) *''C. e. littoralis'' van Someren, 1967 (eastern Kenya, eastern Tanzania) *''C. e. marsabitensis'' van Someren, 1967 (Kenya: north to Mount Marsabit) *''C. e. nyanzae'' van Someren, 1967 (Uganda, south-western Kenya, western Tanzania, Democratic Republic of the Congo: east to Lake Mweru)

Similar species

'' Charaxes pondoensis'' and '' Charaxes karkloof''

Taxonomy

''Charaxes ethalion'' is a member of the large species group ''Charaxes etheocles''.

Realm

Afrotropical realm The Afrotropical realm is one of the Earth's eight biogeographic realms. It includes Sub-Saharan Africa, the southern Arabian Peninsula, the island of Madagascar, and the islands of the western Indian Ocean. It was formerly known as the Ethiopi ...

References

External links

''Charaxes ethalion'' images
subspecies and forma 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. ethalion ethalion''

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)
Images of ''C. ethalion kikuyuensis''
(Albertine Rift Project)
Images of ''C. ethalion kitungulensis ''
(Albertine Rift Project) {{DEFAULTSORT:Charaxes Ethalion ethalion Butterflies described in 1847 Taxa named by Jean Baptiste Boisduval Butterflies of Africa