Charaxes fulvescens explained

Charaxes fulvescens, the forest pearl charaxes, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae.

Taxonomy

Charaxes varanes group. Subgenus Stonehamia (Hadrodontes)The group members are:

Subspecies

Subspecies include:

Distribution

This species is found in Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia.[5]

Habitat

These butterflies usually occur in dense evergreen forests at low to moderate altitudes. Occasionally inhabits savanna.[5] In Tanzania it is found at altitudes of 800to [6]

Description

Charaxes fulvescens can reach a wingspan of about .[7] The inner half of the wings is white. Outside the white area of the upperside, the wings are orange to brown, with a pattern of lighter and darker flecks. The underside of the wings mimics a dead leaf. A sepia brown straight line divides the under wing in two areas. The inner area is light beige with several curved, interrupted, grey brown wavy lines. The outer area of the underside of the hindwing has a large eyespot and shows a well developed outer spur. Males and females are similar.[8]

Description in Seitz

Ch. fulvescens. Distal margin of the forewing in the first three races nearly straight. Forewing above in the basal part light yellow. Hindwing not angled at vein 2. Upper surface of both wings darker in the marginal part than in varanes.- fulvescens Auriv. Both wings beneath light straw-yellow at the base. Sierra Leone to Gaboon. monitor Rothsch. Wings beneath yellow-grey or olive-coloured at the base. Congo to Uganda and German East Africa. - comoranus Auriv.[= ''Charaxes fulvescens'' ssp. ''saperanus'' Poulton, 1926 = ''[[Charaxes saperanus]]]. Basal area of both wings above uniform light orange- yellow without white; the inner spots in the black distal part of the forewing above much produced transversely; the dark marginal band on the upperside of the hindwing much narrower than in the other races. Comoros: Mayotte. - acuminatus Thurau. [Now species] Forewing with the distal margin deeply excised and long, sharp, falcate apex; the orange or red-brown spots in the black marginal area small or indistinct. German East Africa. [9]

Biology

The larvae feed on Allophylus species, including A. macrobothrys, A. africanus, A. macrostachys and A. subcoriaceus.[5] Notes on the biology of fulvescens are provided by Larsen, T.B. (1991) and (2005) [10] [11]

References

External links

Notes and References

  1. Plantrou, J. 1989. In: Henning, S.F 1989. The Charaxinae butterflies of Africa 43 (457 pp.). Johannesburg.
  2. Canu, J.G 1989. In: Henning, 1989. The Charaxinae butterflies of Africa 136 (457 pp.). Johannesburg.
  3. 1900 Rothschild, 1900 in Rothschild, W., & Jordan, K. 1900. A monograph of Charaxes and the allied prionopterous genera. Novitates Zoologicae 7: [i-iv], 287-524.
  4. 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): 65-136.
  5. Web site: Afrotropical Butterflies: File H - Charaxinae - Tribe Charaxini . 2012-05-22 . 2013-11-09 . https://web.archive.org/web/20131109071734/http://atbutterflies.com/downloads/nymphalidae_charaxini.doc . dead .
  6. Kielland, J. 1990 Butterflies of Tanzania. Hill House, Melbourne and London: 1-363.
  7. http://www.westafricanlepidoptera.com/species.php?b=1&id=725&bk=al Butterflies of West Africa
  8. http://www.learnaboutbutterflies.com/Africa%20-%20Charaxes%20fulvescens.htm Learn about butterflies.
  9. 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.
  10. Larsen, T.B. 1991 The Butterflies of Kenya and their Natural History. Oxford University Press, Oxford: i-xxii, 1-490.
  11. Larsen, T.B. 2005 Butterflies of West Africa. Apollo Books, Svendborg, Denmark: 1-595