''Charaxes nyikensis'', the montane 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

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 eastern

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> The habitat consists of montane forests, riverine forests, scrub forests and ''

Brachystegia ''Brachystegia'' is a genus of tree of the subfamily Detarioideae that is native to tropical Africa. Trees of the genus are commonly known as miombo, and are dominant in the miombo woodlands of central and southern tropical Africa. The Zambezian ...

'' woodland (

Miombo The Miombo woodland is a tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome (in the World Wide Fund for Nature scheme) located primarily in Central Africa. It includes four woodland savanna ecoregions (listed below) characterized ...

). The larvae feed on '' Albizia gummifera'' and ''

Dalbergia lactea ''Dalbergia'' is a large genus of small to medium-size trees, shrubs and lianas in the pea family, Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae. It was recently assigned to the informal monophyletic ''Dalbergia'' clade (or tribe): the Dalbergieae. The ...

''.

Taxonomy

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

References

*Van Someren, V.G. L., 1966 Revisional notes on African ''Charaxes'' (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Part III. ''Bulletin of the British Museum'' (Natural History) (Entomology)45-10

85 *Van Someren, V.G. L., 1975 Revisional notes on African ''Charaxes'', ''Palla'' and ''Euxanthe'' (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Part X. ''Bulletin of the British Museum of Natural History'' (Entomology) 32 (3):65-13

Status revised to full species.

External links

''Charaxes nyikensis'' 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 ...

Butterflies described in 1975 nyikensis {{Charaxinae-stub