''Charaxes mars'', the iron rajah, is a butterfly of the rajahs and nawabs group, i.e. the

Charaxinae __NOTOC__ The Charaxinae, the leafwings, are a nymphalid subfamily of butterflies that includes about 400 species, inhabiting mainly the tropics, although some species extend into temperate regions in North America, Europe, China, and southern ...

group of the

brush-footed butterflies 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 ...

family. It is endemic to

Sulawesi Sulawesi ( ), also known as Celebes ( ), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the List of islands by area, world's 11th-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Min ...

in central Indonesia. ''Charaxes mars'' is a large butterfly with forewings with concave outer edge and hindwings each with a tail. The upper side of the forewings is dark blue and light in the basal part. The hindwings are orange with a submarginal line of dark brown ocelli.

Technical description

male Tawny colour of upperside of hindwing not reaching in front of R1; black postdisco-submarginal patches all fused together (except dots M2S-M2), patch M1-M2 elongate, vein R3 and outer half of M1 black, tawny admarginal interspaces SC2- R2 faintly indicated; tail shorter than in ''mars dohertyi''female Unknown. ''madensis'' male Unknown. Most likely resembling that of ''Ch. mars''. female. Allied to ''Ch.mars''. Upperside Forewing: blackish brown, no blue tone, white discal band broader than ''Ch. mars''.Rothschild, W. and Jordan, K. (1898). A monograph of ''Charaxes'' and the allied prionopterous genera. Novitates Zoologicae 1900 Volume 7:287-524. Descriptions and plates (monochrome photos).

Races

* ''Charaxes mars mars'' (northern Sulawesi) * ''Charaxes mars dohertyi'' Rothschild, 1892 (southern Sulawesi) * ''Charaxes mars madensis'' Rothschild, 1899 (Buru)

References

mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

Butterflies of Indonesia Butterflies described in 1885 Taxa named by Otto Staudinger {{Charaxinae-stub