HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Charaxes pondoensis'', the Pondo emperor, 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 ...
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 have a re ...
. It is found in
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...
."''Charaxes'' Ochsenheimer, 1816"
at Markku Savela's ''Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms''
The
wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan ...
is 45–55 mm in males and 48–60 mm in females.


Biology

The habitat is coastal scarp forest. ''pondoensis'' flies year-round, with peaks October/November and March to May. Larvae feed on '' Milletia sutherlandi'' and '' Milletia grandis''. Notes on the biology of ''pondoensis'' are given by Pringle et al (1994) Pringle et al , 1994. ''Pennington’s Butterflies of Southern Africa'', 2nd edition


Similar species

'' Charaxes ethalion '' and '' Charaxes karkloof'' ''C. pondoensis'' differs from ''
Charaxes ethalion ''Charaxes ethalion'', the satyr emperor or satyr charaxes, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found in southern Africa.Charaxes karkloof'' in the stronger contrast between the light and dark areas on the underside, especially in males; the underside is silvery grey, not brown as in the other two species. On the underside of the hindwing in area 4 there are two fine, black lines at the end of the cell – these meet on vein 4 immediately basad of the juncture between vein 4 and vein 3. In the nominate subspecies of ''Charaxes karkloof'' these two lines are always separated and meet vein 4 on either side of this juncture.


Taxonomy

''Charaxes pondoensis'' is a member of the large species group ''Charaxes etheocles''


References

*Van Someren V.G.L 1967 Revisional notes on African ''Charaxes'' (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Part IV. ''Bulletin of the British Museum'' (Natural History) (Entomology)277-31

285 plate 1


External links


Charaxes pondoensis 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 1967 pondoensis {{Charaxinae-stub