Subfamily Heliconiinae.: A largely pantropical group, with one of the five tribes found in the Holarctic Region.
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Tribe Acraeini: There are two Afrotropical genera contained within this tribe; Telchinia and Acraea, both represented at Semuliki. There are 138 described Afrotropical species within this tribe with 104 species recorded in Uganda. At Semuliki a total of 45 species from both genera have been recorded: 25 from the genus Telchinia and 20 species of Acraea, contributing to a third of the Ugandan species total.
Genus Cymothoe: There are 15 species of the Afrotropical genus Cymothoe so far recorded at Semuliki from a.continent total of 78 (Williams, 2018) and a Ugandan total of 17 (Williams, 2015) or 90% of Uganda's total. The two Ugandan species not being recorded at Semuliki being C. distincta and C. indamora, but with both these species being recorded either in the Ituri Forest or Semliki Valley (Ducarme, 2018) it is a distinct possibility that they will also be found in Semuliki. Only three species are frequently sampled in traps and these are C. sangaris, C. cyclades and C. confusa. This genus has been categorised into clades nd the most commonly trapped species C. confusa had a distinctly clumped distribution within Semuliki. Species from this genus were observed more in the forest midstorey as compared to the preference of the forest floor for the genera Bebearia, Euphaedra and Euriphene.
Genus Cymothoe: There are 15 species of the Afrotropical genus Cymothoe so far recorded at Semuliki from a.continent total of 78 (Williams, 2018) and a Ugandan total of 17 (Williams, 2015) or 90% of Uganda's total. The two Ugandan species not being recorded at Semuliki being C. distincta and C. indamora, but with both these species being recorded either in the Ituri Forest or Semliki Valley (Ducarme, 2018) it is a distinct possibility that they will also be found in Semuliki. Only three species are frequently sampled in traps and these are C. sangaris, C. cyclades and C. confusa. This genus has been categorised into clades nd the most commonly trapped species C. confusa had a distinctly clumped distribution within Semuliki. Species from this genus were observed more in the forest midstorey as compared to the preference of the forest floor for the genera Bebearia, Euphaedra and Euriphene.
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Semuliki National Park, Uganda
Genus Charaxes: The genus Charaxes is a predominantly Afrotropical genus containing 186 described species with a further eight species recorded from the Oriental region. There are 64 species recorded from Uganda, with 41 recorded so far for Semuliki, contributing 62% of all Ugandan Charaxes species.
The taxonomic groupings used below will follow the phylogeny as proposed by Aduse-Poku et al. (2009) from genetic analysis. This merged the historically typical three genera make-up (Charaxes, Polyura and Euxanthe) of the Charaxini into a monophyletic grouping, under a single genus Charaxes. This single genus was then divided into five subgenera which were then split into 24 species groups. ​The latest systematic revision (Bouyer, 2023) proposes a nine genera grouping. This comprises the genus Charaxes and the reinstatement of the two genera, Euxanthe and Polyura merged by Aduse-Poku et al., (2009), revising three genera (Zingha, Eriboea, Viridixes) and creating a further three new genera (Ydeali, Laodice and Setechin). The Euxanthe genus was also split into two subgenera and a further 26 species groups are detailed for the remaining eight genera.
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The Metamorphosis publication 'The butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidia) of Semuliki National Park, western Uganda', Forbes (2018) lists Charaxes smaragdalis ssp. as caerulea - this should be amended to leopoldi.
Subgenus Charaxes
species group Jasius
There are 10 Afrotropical species-groups within this subgenus.species group Jasius. There are five species recorded at Semuliki within this group: C. epijasius, C. brutus, C. pollux, C. eudoxus and C. castor. C. epijasus was sampled only once when traps were located in the grassland patch. C. brutus was also rare and trapped only once. C. eudoxus was recorded from a specimen from The National Museum of Scotland (entomology collections) but was never live trapped at Semuliki. C. pollux was frequently sampled in the nets but never in abundant numbers. C. castor was never trapped but was sampled by Davenport (1996).
Charaxes epijasius (upper and underside, sexes similar)
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Charaxes brutus (upper and underside, sexes similar)
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Charaxes pollux (upper and underside, sexes similar)
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Charaxes eudoxus (waiting on field images)
Charaxes eudoxus (males, left)
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Charaxes castor (waiting on field images)
Charaxes castor (males, left)
species group Hadrianus
There are two species within this group and one has been recorded at Semuliki: C. hadrianus. Only one specimen was ever recorded in the fruit-traps and then only recorded 200 m from the main sampling transect within the forest interior.
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Charaxes hadrianus (upper and underside, sexes similar)
species group Zingha
There is only one species within this group: C. zingha. Only two specimens were ever recorded in the fruit-traps and both were captured at the forest margins.
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Charaxes zingha (male, upper and underside)
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Charaxes zingha (female, upperside)
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Charaxes zingha (female, underside)
species group Tiridates
There are 20 species within this group and seven have so far been recorded at Semuliki: C. numenes, C. tiridates, C. bipunctatus, C. smaragdalis, C. imperialis, C. ameliae and C. pythodoris. The relatively common species sampled in the traps are C. numenes, C. tiridates, C. ameliae and C. imperialis. Two species were sampled only once: C. bipunctatus and C. smaragdalis..
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Charaxes smaragdalis (female, upper and underside)
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Charaxes pythodorus (male, upper and underside)
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Charaxes pythodorus (female, upperside)
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Charaxes pythodorus (female, underside)
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Charaxes bipunctatus (male, upper and underside)
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Charaxes numenes (male, upper and underside)
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Charaxes numenes (female, upperside)
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Charaxes numenes (female, underside)
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Charaxes tiridates (male, upper and underside)
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Charaxes tiridates (female, upper and underside)
Charaxes imperialis (male, upper and underside)
Charaxes imperialis (female, upperside)
Charaxes imperialis (female, underside)
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Charaxes ameliae (male, upper and underside)
Charaxes ameliae (female, upper and underside)
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Charaxes ameliae (females, variation in discal band colouration - white, subspecies ameliae and ochre, subspecies victoriae)
species group Candiope
There is only one of this species-group recorded at Semuliki: C. candiope. Only one specimen was ever recorded in the fruit-traps.
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Charaxes candiope (female upper and underside, sexes similar)
species group Varanes
Three species have so far been recorded from Semuliki: acuminatus, varanes and fulvescens. Only fulvescens could be described as common while acuminatus and varanes were rarely trapped or observed.
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Charaxes varanes (male upper and underside, sexes similar)
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Charaxes fulvescens (male upper and underside, sexes similar)
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Charaxes acuminatus (waiting on field images)
Charaxes acuminatus (males, left)
species group Cynthia
Two of the seven species within this species-group have so far been recorded from Semuliki: cynthia and protoclea. Only cynthia could be described as common while protoclea was only trapped once.
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Charaxes cynthia (male, upper and underside )
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Charaxes cynthia (female, upperside)
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Charaxes cynthia (female, underside)
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Charaxes protoclea (female, upper and underside)
species group Lucretius
Only one of the four species described in this group has been recorded at Semuliki: C. lucretius. This was a rare species and only one male was trapped.
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Charaxes lucretius (male, upper and underside)
species group Etesipe
Only one of seven species described in this group has been recorded at Semuliki: C. etesipe and was never trapped..
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Charaxes etesipe (waiting on field images)
Charaxes etesipe (males, left)
Subgenus EuxantheT
There are two species-groups within this subgenus: Euxanthe and Lycurgus.
species group Euxanthe
There are three species recorded at Semuliki from the six species described within this group: C. eurinome, C. crossleyi and C. trajanus. These three species were net sampled and not found within the fruit traps. Each of these species were predominantly sampled along the forest margins within a less dense understorey than the forest interior.
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Charaxes eurinome (male, upper and underside)
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Charaxes crossleyi (male upper and underside, sexes similar)
Charaxes crossleyi (male upper and underside, pattern variation)
Charaxes crossleyi (male upper and underside, pattern variation)
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Charaxes trajanus (female, upper and underside)
species group Lycurgus
There are two recorded species from this group: C. lycurgus and C. zelica. Only one was trapped within my sampling periods while C. zelica was identified from a specimen from The National Museum of Scotland (collections department).
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Charaxes lycurgus (male, upper and underside)
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Charaxes lycurgus (female, upperside)
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Charaxes lycurgus (female, underside)
Charaxes zelica (waiting on field images)
Charaxes zelica (males, left)
Subgenus Polyura
There are two Afrotropical species-groups within this subgenus.
species group Pleione
There are only two species recorded at Semuliki within this group: C. paphianus and C. pleione. Both species were uncommon and trapped within the forest margins.
Charaxes paphianus (male, upper and underside)
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Charaxes pleione (male, upper and underside)
Charaxes pleione (female, upperside)
Image by Thijs Valkenburg (original posted on inaturalist)
species group Zoolina
There is only one species recorded at Semuliki within this group: C. khaldeni. This was trapped by Tim Davenport in his census of 1996 and the collected specimens provided to Makerere University in Kampala. The species was never observed during my sampling periods.
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Charaxes kahldeni (waiting on field images)
Charaxes kahldeni (males, left)
Subgenus Eriboea
There are six Afrotropical species-groups within this subgenus.
species group Eupale
There are only two species recorded at Semuliki within this group: C. eupale and C. minor.
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Charaxes eupale (upper and underside, sexes similar)
Charaxes minor (male undersides, sexes similar)
species group Anticlea
Of the six species described within this clade only one is found at Semuliki: C. anticlea. Again a rare species which was only trapped once along the forest margins.
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Charaxes anticlea (female, upper and underside)
species group Hildebrandti
Only one species is recognised in this group: C. hildebrandti which is split into three subspecies of which a specimen of C. hildebrandti katangensis has been labelled within the National Museum of Scotland Collections Dept. This could be an identification error with the subspecies more likely the nominate subspecies which has been located in both the Central Forest Block and the Ituri Forest of the DRC (Ducarme, 2018).
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Charaxes hildebrandti (waiting on field images)
Charaxes hildebrandti (males, left)
species group Etheocles
This group includes the 'black charaxes' of which there are six species recorded at Semuliki: C. virilis, C. viola, C. catachrous, C. etheocles, C. baumanni and C. cedreatis. The males are characteristically very difficult to differentiate and so the evidence of a species presence is often with an identification of the female. The female (which can have many forms) will be displayed along with a male, based on descriptions from 'The Charaxinae Butterflies of Africa' by Stephen Henning.
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Charaxes viola (male, upper and underside)
Charaxes viola (female, upper and underside)
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Charaxes etheocles carpenteri f. carpenteri (female, upperside)
Charaxes etheocles carpenteri f. pallidimacula (female, upper and underside)
Charaxes etheocles carpenteri (male, upper and underside)
Charaxes etheocles carpenteri f. carpenteri (female, underside)
Charaxes etheocles carpenteri f. pallidimacula (female variation, upperside)
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Charaxes catachrous (male, upper and underside)
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Charaxes catachrous (female, upperside)
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Charaxes catachrous (female, underside)
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Charaxes cedreatis (male, upper and underside)
Charaxes baumanni (male, upper and underside)
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Charaxes virilis (waiting on field images
Charaxes virilis (males, left)
Subgenus new
A new subgenus to incorporate only one species, Charaxes nichetes.
Species group Nichetes
C. nichetes was identified from the National Museum of Scotland, entomology collections department as being recorded from Semuliki.
Charaxes nichetes (waiting on field images
Charaxes nichetes (males, left)
Charaxes nichetes (Images by Gilles Faravel)
Thanks are due to Mr Jean-Pierre Lequeux in Kampala for overseeing the accuracy of this page. Jean-Pierre's is an authority on the Family Papilionidae and Subfamily Charaxinae and his experience and expertise of Ugandan species making up these two groups is unbeatable.
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Specific genus site links, references and bibliography:
Aduse-Poku, K., et al., (2009), Out-of-Africa again: A phylogenetic hypothesis of the genus Charaxes (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) based on five gene regions. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 53(2): 463–478.
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Bouyer, T., (2023). The genera of the tribe Charaxini (Papilionoidea, Nymphalidae, Charaxinae). Metamorphosis 34: 59–78.
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Henning, S. F., (1988). The Charaxinae Butterflies of Africa, Aloe Books, Johannesburg.
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Nymphalidae.Net provides a detailed taxonomic overview of the Tribe Charaxini. Tribe Charaxini (Wahlberg, N).
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Savela, M. Charaxes Ochsenheimer [1816]. Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms. Excellent online resource.
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The publications listed below (Butterflies of the World) are available from www.insecta.de and www.goeckeevers.de.
Turlin, B., (2005). Butterflies of the World. Part 22, Nymphalidae 10. (Text Supplement 10), Bauer and Frankenbach, Keltern.
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Turlin, B., (2007). Butterflies of the World. Part 32, Nymphalidae 12. (Text Supplement 12), Bauer and Frankenbach, Keltern.
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Turlin, B., (2007). Butterflies of the World. Part 28, Nymphalidae 14. (Text Supplement 14), Bauer and Frankenbach, Keltern.
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Turlin, B., (2009). Butterflies of the World. Part 32, Nymphalidae 17. (Text Supplement 17), Bauer and Frankenbach, Keltern.
Turlin, B., (2011). Butterflies of the World. Part 34, Nymphalidae 19. (Text Supplement 19), Bauer and Frankenbach, Keltern.
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Turlin, B., (2013). Butterflies of the World. Part 38, Nymphalidae 22. (Text Supplement 21), Bauer and Frankenbach, Keltern.
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Turlin, B., (2014). Palla and Euxanthe.. Butterflies of the World, Part 40, Nymphalidae 24. (Text Supplement 23), Bauer and Frankenbach, Keltern.
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Williams, M.C., (2020). Genus Charaxes. A section of Afrotropical Butterflies (17th Edition). Publication is available from Lepidopterists' Society of Africa website https://www.lepsocafrica.org/?p=publications&s=atb.