Charaxes nichetes

Charaxes nichetes
C. n. nichetes from the CAR
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Nymphalidae
Genus:	Charaxes
Species:	C. nichetes
Binomial name
Charaxes nichetes Grose-Smith, 1883 [1] [2]
Synonyms
Charaxes hamatusDewitz, 1884 Charaxes ogovensisHolland, 1886 Charaxes nichetes bouchei f. veronicaePlantrou, 1974 Charaxes leoninusButler, 1895 Charaxes nichetes ssese f. bugallaTurlin and Lequeux, 2002

Charaxes nichetes, the Manx charaxes or water charaxes, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, Chad, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Angola. ^[3]

Description

nichetes Group. male Distal margin of the fore wing emarginate, before the anal angle at the end of vein 2 strongly convex. Hindwing in the d produced to a point at the anal angle; distal margin curved and feebly dentate but without tail; in the female rounded at the anal angle and with a very short tail at vein 4. Ground-colour above orange-red with violet reflection. Ch. nichetes Smith wings above with a nearly straight black median band, extending from the costal margin of the forewing to the middle of vein 2 on the hindwing and about 4 mm. in breadth. Forewing with black discal spots in cellules 2–6, which are more or less completely united with the proximal side of the transverse band; hindwing inside the band broadly blackish. Forewing with dark marginal spots united into a band and hindwing with thick submarginal annulated spots. In the female the basal half of both wings above is almost as dark as the transverse band, which is consequently only bordered distally by the reddish yellow ground-colour; submarginal spots of the hindwing united into a light-spotted band 4mm. in breadth. Cameroons to Angola. - leoninus Btlr. differs from the type-form only in having the black markings much less developed. In the female they are even more reduced, the ground-colour much lighter orange-yellow and the distal margin of the hindwing uniformly rounded, without tails. Nyassaland. ^[4] This species is easily identified by the absence of tails.

Biology

Habitat in Gabon

The habitat consists of forests, low altitude woodland savanna and Brachystegia woodland. Often near rivers and streams.

The larvae feed on Uapaca nitida , Uapaca kirkiana and Uapaca sansibarica .

Notes on the biology of nichetes are given by Pringle et al. (1994) and Kielland (1990). ^{[5] [6]}

Subspecies

• C. n. nichetes (southern Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, northern Angola, northern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Uganda: western and northern shores of Lake Victoria)
• C. n. boucheiPlantrou, 1974 ^[7] (Sierra Leone, Liberia, southern Ivory Coast, Ghana, western Nigeria)
• C. n. leoninusButler, 1895 ^[8] (Democratic Republic of the Congo: Shaba, southern Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, eastern Zimbabwe)
• C. n. leopardinusPlantrou, 1974 (Guinea, north-eastern Ivory Coast, Benin, Nigeria, northern Cameroon, Chad)
• C. n. pantherinusRousseau-Decelle, 1934 ^[9] (Democratic Republic of the Congo, north-eastern Zambia, north-western Tanzania)
• C. n. sseseTurlin & Lequeux, 2002. ^[10] (Uganda)

Taxonomy

Charaxes nichetes is the sole member of species group Charaxes nichetes.

References

1. Grose-Smith, H. 1883 Descriptions of three new species of Charaxes. Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine 20: 57-58.
2. "Charaxes Ochsenheimer, 1816" at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms
3. "Afrotropical Butterflies: File H - Charaxinae - Tribe Charaxini". Archived from the original on 2013-11-09. Retrieved 2012-05-25.
4. Aurivillius, [P.O.]C. 1908-1924. In: Seitz, A. Die Großschmetterlinge der Erde Band 13: Abt. 2, Die exotischen Großschmetterlinge, Die afrikanischen Tagfalter, 1925, 613 Seiten, 80 Tafeln (The Macrolepidoptera of the World 13).Alfred Kernen Verlag, Stuttgart. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
5. Pringle et al, 1994. Pennington’s Butterflies of Southern Africa, 2nd edition
6. Kielland, J. 1990 Butterflies of Tanzania. Hill House, Melbourne and London: 1-363.
7. Plantrou, J. 1974. Note sur les Charaxes de l’Afrique occidentale, 2 (Lep. Nymphalidae).Bulletin de la Société Entomologique de France 79 (5-6): 125-131.
8. Butler, A. G 1895 On collections of Lepidoptera from British Central Africa and Lake Tanganyika Proc. zool. Soc. Lond. 1895 (2): 250-270, pl. 15-16 Full text
9. Rousseau-Decelle, G. 1934. De quelques formes nouvelles de Charaxes africains. Bulletin de la Société Entomologique de France 39: 228-236.
10. Turlin, B. and Lequeux, J.P. 2002. Notes sur les Charaxinae d’Uganda et description de deux nouvelles sous-especes (Lepidoptera Nymphalidae). Lambillionea 102 (1) (Tome I): 69-76.

• Victor Gurney Logan Van Someren, 1974 Revisional notes on African Charaxes (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Part IX. Bulletin of the British Museum of Natural History (Entomology) 29 (8):415-487.
• Seitz, A. Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde 13: Die Afrikanischen Tagfalter. Plate XIII 32

External links

• Images of C. n. leoninus Royal Museum for Central Africa (Albertine Rift Project)
• Images of C. n. nichetes (Albertine Rift Project)
• Images of C. n. pantherinus (Albertine Rift Project)
• Charaxes nichetes images at Consortium for the Barcode of Life
• C. n. nichetes images at BOLD
• C. n. bouchei images at BOLD
• C. n. leoninus images at BOLD
• C. n. leopardinus images at BOLD
• C. n. pantherinus images at BOLD
• C. n. ssese images at BOLD