Charaxes lucretius

Charaxes lucretius, the violet-washed charaxes or common red charaxes, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae.

Charaxes lucretius
C. l. lucretius
Bobiri Forest, Ghana
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Nymphalidae
Genus: Charaxes
Species:
C. lucretius
Binomial name
Charaxes lucretius
(Cramer, [1775]) [1][2]
Synonyms
  • Papilio lucretius Cramer, [1775]
  • Charaxes lucretius lucida Le Cerf, 1923
  • Charaxes lucretius f. caliginosa Le Cerf, 1923
  • Charaxes cynthia f. albofascia Le Cerf, 1923
  • Charaxes lucretius f. babingtoni Stoneham, 1943
  • Charaxes lucretius f. alberici Dufrane, 1945
  • Charaxes lucretius f. victoriaeincola Storace, 1948

Description

Ch. lucretius Cr. male. Wings above black with slight bluish reflection; forewing rust-brown in the cell and at the costal margin, beyond the middle with a nearly straight row of 8 large red-yellow spots and with similar but smaller marginal spots; hindwing beyond the middle with red-yellow, posteriorly narrower discal band and with broad red-yellow marginal band; the under surface red-brown with black transverse streaks in the basal part. In the female both wings above are smoke-brown with common whitish discal band, placed as in the male but much narrower; the marginal spots of the forewing very small or indistinct ; the marginal band of the hindwing much narrower than in the male and whitish with orange-yellow tinge; the base of the costal margin of the forewing only very narrowly red-brown; the under surface lighter than in the male and with whitish discal band, which is broader than above. In the West African forest-region from Sierra Leone to Angola and Uganda, widely distributed and very common. [3] Similar to Charaxes eudoxus but the silvery markings on the underside are absent [4]

Taxonomy

Charaxes lucretius group:

Subspecies
  • C. l. lucretius (Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, western Nigeria)
  • C. l. intermedius van Someren, 1971 (Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia)
  • C. l. maximus van Someren, 1971[5] (Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, western Kenya, north-western Tanzania)
  • C. l. saldanhai Bivar de Sousa, 1983 [6] (north-western Angola)
  • C. l. schofieldi Plantrou, 1989[7] (north-eastern Zambia)
  • C. l. intermedius - male
    C. l. intermedius - male
  • C. l. intermedius - female
    C. l. intermedius - female

Distribution and habitat

It is found in Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tome and Principe, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, Angola, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia.[8] The habitat consists of primary forests.

Biology

Notes on the biology of lucretius are provided by Larsen (2005) and Larsen (1991) [9]

The larvae feed on Annona senegalensis, Hugonia platysepala and Trema species.

References
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Wikispecies has information related to Charaxes lucretius.
  1. Cramer, P. [1775-1776]. De Uitlandsche Kapellen voorkomende in de drie waereld-deelen Asia, Africa en America. Amsteldam & Utrecht. 1: [vi], xxx, 16 pp., 155 pp.
  2. "Charaxes Ochsenheimer, 1816" at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms
  3. 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.Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  4. Kielland, J. 1990 Butterflies of Tanzania. Hill House, Melbourne and London: 1-363.
  5. van Someren, V.G.L. 1971. Revisional notes on African Charaxes (Lepidoptera:Nymphalidae). Part VII. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) (Entomology) 26:181-226.
  6. Bivar de Sousa, A. ]. 1983. Actas del I Congreso Iberico de Entomologia, Facultad de Biologia, Leon,France, 7-10 June, 1983: 113 (107-119)
  7. Plantrou,J. 1989. In: Henning, S.F 1989. The Charaxinae butterflies of Africa 43 (457 pp.). Johannesburg.
  8. Afrotropical Butterflies: File H - Charaxinae - Tribe Charaxini
  9. Larsen, T.B. 2005 Butterflies of West Africa. Apollo Books, Svendborg, Denmark: 1-595
  • Victor Gurney Logan Van Someren, 1971 Revisional notes on African Charaxes (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Part VII. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) (Entomology)181-226.
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