Charaxes lycurgus explained

Charaxes lycurgus, the Laodice untailed charaxes, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania.^[1] The habitat consists of lowland evergreen forests and riverine forests.

The larvae feed on Pterocarpus santalinoides, Paullinia pinnata, Albizia zygia, Lonchocarpus cyanescens, Dalbergia, Millettia, Dichapetalum and Trachyphrynium species.

Subspecies

• Charaxes lycurgus lycurgus (Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, western Nigeria)
• Charaxes lycurgus bernardiana Plantrou, 1978 ^[2] (northern and eastern Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Bioko, Congo, Central African Republic, northern Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, southern Sudan, western Uganda, Tanzania: eastern shores of Lake Tanganyika)

Taxonomy

Differs from Charaxes zelica in the deeply concave margin of the forewing, the hindwing blue spots are closer to the margin and the presence of submarginal blue spots on the forewing ^[3]

Charaxes lycurgus is a member of the species group Charaxes lycurgus. The supposed clade members are:

Clade 1

• Charaxes lycurgus nominate
• Charaxes porthos
• Charaxes zelica

Clade 2

• Charaxes mycerina
• Charaxes doubledayi

References

• 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. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/127336#page/511/mode/1up as laodice

External links

• Images of C. lycurgus lycurgus Royal Museum for Central Africa (Albertine Rift Project)
• Charaxes lycurgus images at Consortium for the Barcode of Life
• Charaxes lycurgus lycurgus images at BOLD
• Charaxes lycurgus bernardiana images at BOLD

Notes and References

1. Web site: Afrotropical Butterflies: File H - Charaxinae - Tribe Charaxini . 2012-05-25 . 2013-11-09 . https://web.archive.org/web/20131109071734/http://atbutterflies.com/downloads/nymphalidae_charaxini.doc . dead .
2. Plantrou, J. 1978 Note sur les Charaxes du groupe ‘porthos-zelica’ et nouvelle revision de la taxonomie du groupe (Lepidoptera Nymphalidae). Annales de la Societe Entomologique de France (N.S.) 14 (3): 515-533.
3. Kielland, J. 1990 Butterflies of Tanzania. Hill House, Melbourne and London: 1-363.