Charaxes zoolina


Charaxes zoolina, the club-tailed emperor or club-tailed charaxes, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found in southern Africa.

Description

The wingspan is 40–45 mm in males and 50–58 mm in females.
The species of this group differ from all others in the hindwing having in the male only one long tail, at vein 2, but in the female two, at veins 2 and 4.
Ch. zoolina occurs in three local races, each with a greenish and a brown or brown-yellow form. The greenish white forms differ from kahldeni in the broad dark marginal band on the upperside of the wing and the yellow-brown forms from homeyeri ab. andriba Ward. Madagascar.

Biology

Flight period is from October to June. The habitat is forest.
Larvae feed on Entada - Entada spicata, Entada abyssinica, Entada natalensis, Acacia natalitia, Acacia schweinfurthi, Acacia brevispica, and Acacia kraussiana.

Subspecies

Listed alphabetically.
  • C. z. betsimisaraka Lucas, 1872
  • C. z. ehmckei Homeyer and Dewitz, 1882
  • C. z. mafugensis Jackson, 1956
  • ''C. z. zoolina''

Taxonomy

Charaxes zoolina is a member of the species group Charaxes zoolina.
The clade members are
The group differs from all the others in Charaxes in the male having a tail on vein 2, but the female having two long tails on veins 2, 4. There are two different forms, one with black markings on a greenish white base colour and one with reddish-brown markings on red-yellow whitish colour. These forms can be from eggs of the same female.