__NOTOC__ ''Charaxes eudoxus'', the Eudoxus charaxes, 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 Guinea,

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean to its south and southwest. It ...

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

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in Ghana–Ivory Coast border, the west, Burkina ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya 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 G ...

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west- central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; th ...

, Equatorial Guinea,

Gabon Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north ...

, the Republic of the Congo,

Angola , national_anthem = "Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

, the

Democratic Republic of the 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 ...

, the

Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR; ; , RCA; , or , ) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the DR Congo to the south, the Republic of the C ...

, Sudan,

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 ...

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 ...

.Afrotropical Butterflies: File H - Charaxinae - Tribe Charaxini
/ref>

Description

''Ch. eudoxus'' differs from the ''

Charaxes druceanus ''Charaxes druceanus'', the silver-barred emperor or silver-barred charaxes, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found throughout tropical Africa. Further exploration of the phylogenetic relationships amongst existing ''Charaxes'' t ...

'' in having the median band on the upperside of the forewing completely bordered on both sides by the deep black-brown ground-colour and towards the costal margin much narrowed but almost straight. The basal third of both wings above is dark red-brown; the red-yellow marginal spots are large and on the hindwing united into a marginal band. On the under surface of the hindwing the silver-white median band is narrow with yellowish spots along the middle and in the basal area the black centres of the silvery streaks and spots are entirely or almost entirely absent. A very rare species. — ''eudoxus'' Drury has the median band on the upperside of the forewing rather broad and in cellules 4—7 also composed of rounded spots; on the under surface this band is lighter than the ground-colour and distinctly defined. Pupa unicolorous green, with yellowish spiracles and orange-yellow cremaster. Sierra Leone to Cameroons.— In ''mechowi'' Rothsch. the median band of the upper surface is placed very near to the distal margin and in cellules 2—6 is very narrowly linear; on the under surface, except at the hindmargin in cellules 1 a and 1 b, it is red-brown and not lighter than the ground-colour. Angola and the southern Congo region.

Biology

The habitat consists of forests, including gallery and riverine forests. The larvae feed on ''

Schefflera ''Schefflera'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Araliaceae. With an estimated 600–900 species, the genus represents about half of its family. The plants are trees, shrubs or lianas, growing tall, with woody stems, the absence o ...

'', ''

Syzygium ''Syzygium'' () is a genus of flowering plants that belongs to the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. The genus comprises about 1200 species, and has a native range that extends from Africa and Madagascar through southern Asia east through the Pacific. I ...

'' (including '' S. cordatum'' and ''

S. guineense S is the nineteenth letter of the English alphabet. S may also refer to: History * an Anglo-Saxon charter's number in Peter Sawyer's, catalogue Language and linguistics * Long s (ſ), a form of the lower-case letter s formerly used where " ...

'') and ''

Garcinia ''Garcinia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Clusiaceae native to Asia, America, Australia, tropical and southern Africa, and Polynesia. The number of species is disputed; Plants of the World Online (POWO) recognise up to 400. Co ...

'' species.Notes on the biology of ''eudoxus'' are given by Kielland, J. (1990) and Larsen, T.B. (1991)

Subspecies

*''C. e. eudoxus'' (Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, western Nigeria) *''C. e. amaurus'' Poulton, 1929 (western Kenya) *''C. e. biokoensis'' Canu, 1989 (Bioko) *''C. e. boersmana'' Plantrou, 1980 (Nigeria: north to central) *''C. e. cabacus'' Jordan, 1925 (Uganda: north-west shores of Lake Victoria) *''C. e. goubandana'' Nicat, 2002 (Guinea) *''C. e. imatongensis'' Plantrou, 1982 (Sudan: south to Imatong Mountains) *''C. e. katerae'' Carpenter, 1937 (Uganda: south to the western shores of Lake Victoria, north-western Tanzania) *''C. e. lequeuxi'' Plantrou, 1982 (Rwanda, Burundi) *''C. e. mechowi'' Rothschild, 1900 (eastern Nigeria, south-western Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, northern Angola, north-western Zambia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic) *''C. e. mitchelli'' Plantrou & Howarth, 1977 (Zambia) *''C. e. raffaellae'' Plantrou, 1982 (north-western Tanzania, possibly Burundi) *''C. e. zambiae'' van Someren, 1970 Van Someren 1970. Revisional notes on African ''Charaxes'' (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Part VI. ''Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) (Entomology)'' 25:197-250 (Zambia: eastern side of the upper Luangwa Valley)

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 in to 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 ''eudoxus'' subgroup (11 species): *''Charaxes eudoxus'' *''

Charaxes lucyae ''Charaxes lucyae'' is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Tanzania. Very close to ''Charaxes eudoxus'' but with more dentate wing margins and longer tails; there are also minor differences in the genitalia The habitat cons ...

'' *''

Charaxes richelmanni __NOTOC__ ''Charaxes richelmanni'' is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Cameroon, Gabon, the Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania. The habitat consists of lowland eve ...

'' *''

Charaxes musakensis ''Charaxes musakensis'' is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Cameroon. The habitat consists of montane forests at altitudes above 1,300 meters. Taxonomy Known only from the type locality Musake Hut, Mount Cameroon. Related ...

'' *''

Charaxes biokensis The rajah and pasha butterflies, also known as emperors in Africa and Australia, (genus ''Charaxes'') make up the huge type genus of the brush-footed butterfly subfamily Charaxinae, or leafwing butterflies. They belong to the tribe Charaxini, ...

'' tat.rev.2005ref name="Turlin 2005"/> *''

Charaxes ducarmei The rajah and pasha butterflies, also known as emperors in Africa and Australia, (genus ''Charaxes'') make up the huge type genus of the brush-footed butterfly subfamily Charaxinae, or leafwing butterflies. They belong to the tribe Charaxini, ...

'' *''

Charaxes tectonis ''Charaxes tectonis'', the mountain silver-barred charaxes, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Nigeria and Cameroon. The habitat consists of sub-montane and montane forests. Subspecies *''Charaxes tectonis tectonis'' (east ...

'' *''

Charaxes phraortes ''Charaxes phraortes'' is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in north-eastern Madagascar. The habitat consists of wet coastal forests. Description Similar to '' pollux'' and ''phoebus'', but has the tails on the hindwing much lo ...

'' *''

Charaxes andranodorus __NOTOC__ ''Charaxes andranodorus'' is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found on Madagascar. Description This rare species is one of the most magnificent forms of ''Charaxes''. Above it agrees very nearly with ''phraortes'', the bas ...

'' *''

Charaxes andrefana The rajah and pasha butterflies, also known as emperors in Africa and Australia, (genus ''Charaxes'') make up the huge type genus of the brush-footed butterfly subfamily Charaxinae, or leafwing butterflies. They belong to the tribe Charaxini, ...

'' tat.rev.2025ref name="Turlin 2005"/> Further exploration of the phylogenetic relationships amongst existing ''Charaxes'' taxa is required to improve clarity.

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 ...

, 1970 Revisional notes on African ''Charaxes'' (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Part VI. ''Bulletin of the British Museum'' (Natural History) (Entomology)197-25

External links

''Charaxes eudoxus lequeuxi'' images at BOLD ''Charaxes lequeuxi'' 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 ...

''Charaxes eudoxus raffaellae'' images
at BOLD
More subspecies images
at BOLD ''Charaxes eudoxus eudoxus'', ''Charaxes eudoxus goubandana'', ''Charaxes eudoxus katerae'', ''Charaxes eudoxus mechowi'', ''Charaxes eudoxus musakensis'', ''Charaxes eudoxus zambiae''
Images of ''C. eudoxus lequeuxi''

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. eudoxus mechowi''
(Albertine Rift Project) Butterflies described in 1782 eudoxus {{Charaxinae-stub