Charaxes xiphares, the forest king emperor or forest king charaxes, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is native to Afromontane forest in the eastern and southern Afrotropical realm.

Description

The wingspan is 65–80 mm for males and 70–95 mm for females. Ch. xiphares Cr. male: the forewing marked almost exactly as in nandina, but the spots blue with the exception of the first two in the distal row; the basal part is tinged with blue, but usually not so distinctly as in the figure. The blue median band of the hindwing is placed further distad, is broader and distally deeply incised at the veins or even almost broken up into spots; small blue submarginal dots and blue or yellowish marginal spots. The female is very different from the male; the forewing is brown-black without blue markings, but with four white discal spots (in the middle of cellule 2, before the middle of 3 and at the base of 4 and 5) and 2 or more white spots behind the middle; small yellowish marginal spots in cellules lb and 2. The hindwing above in the middle between veins 2 and 7 with a very broad (about 15 mm.) ochre-yellow transverse band, distally irrorated with dark, which covers the basal half of cellules 2–6; streak-like blue submarginal spots and narrow yellowish marginal streaks. On the under surface the light spots of the forewing are larger and the hindwing has in the middle an irregular white band, proximally bordered with yellowish; the female is much larger than the Cape Colony, Kaffirland, Natal and Transvaal. Larva green with two whitish, red-centred and black-margined dorsal spots, the larger on segment 6 and the smaller on segment 8.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.

Biology The larvae feed on Craibia brevecaudata, Scutia myrtina, Rhamnus prinoides, Cryptocarya woodii, Chaetachme aristata, and Drypetes gerrardii.

Subspecies Listed alphabetically: C. x. bavenda van Son, 1935van Son, G. 1935. New butterflies from South Africa. Annals of the Transvaal Museum 15: 485-489. – South Africa: Soutpansberg in Limpopo province C. x. bergeri Plantrou, 1975Plantrou, J. 1975. Note sur Charaxes xiphares Cramer (lepidoptere - Nymphalidae) avec la description d’une nouvelle sous-espece du Zaire. Lambillionea 75 (Jubilee Volume): 102-105. – DRC C. x. brevicaudatus Schultze, 1914Schultze, A. 1914. Eine neue Charaxes form aus Deutsch=Ostafrika. Archiv für Naturgeschichte 79 (A.8.): 3. – southern Tanzania C. x. burgessi van Son, 1953Van Son, G. 1953. A revision of the subspecies and forms of Charaxes cithaeron Felder and Charaxes xiphares (Cramer). Annals of the Transvaal Museum 22 (2): 219-230. – DRC: Kivu, south-western Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi C. x. desmondi van Someren, 1936van Someren, V.G.L. 1939. New and little-known Lepidoptera from Kenya and Uganda.Journal of the East Africa and Uganda Natural History Society 14: 172-180. – Kenya: south-east to the Taita Hills C. x. draconis Jordan, 1936Jordan, K., 1936 . On two South African Charaxes (Lepid., Nymphalidae). Novitates Zoologicae 39: 330-333. – Eswatini and South Africa: Mpumalanga province C. x. kenwayi Poulton, 1929Poulton, E.B. 1929 in Eltringham, H., Poulton, E.B., Riley, N.D., & Talbot, G. 1929. African Rhopalocera: descriptions and notes. Transactions of the Entomologial Society of London 77: 475-504. – South Africa: north-eastern Limpopo province C. x. kiellandi Plantrou, 1976Plantrou, J. 1976 Notes on Charaxes xiphares Cramer (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) and a description of a new subspecies. Proceedings and Transactions of the British Entomological and Natural History Society 9 (3-4): 94-97. – northern Tanzania C. x. kilimensis van Someren, 1972van Someren, V.G.L. 1969. Revisional notes on African Charaxes (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Part V. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) (Entomology) 23: 75-166. – northern Tanzania C. x. kulal van Someren, 1962van Someren, V.G.L. 1962. A new Charaxes (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) from the Northern Frontier Province of Kenya. Proceedings of the Royal Entomological Society of London (B) 31: 44-46. – Kenya: north to Mount Kulal C. x. ludovici Rousseau-Decelle, 1933Rousseau-Decelle, G. 1933. Notes sur quelques formes nouvelles des genres Papilio et Charaxes [Lep.]. Bulletin de la Société Entomologique de France 38: 269-273. – northern Malawi, north-eastern Zambia C. x. maudei Joicey & Talbot, 1917Joicey, J.J., & Talbot, G. 1918. New butterflies from Africa and the east. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1917: 271-272 – north-eastern Tanzania C. x. nguru Collins, 1988Collins, S. C in Henning, S.F. 1988 . The Charaxinae butterflies of Africa. Aloe Books, Johannesburg, 1-457. – eastern Tanzania C. x. occidentalis Pringle, 1995Pringle, E.L. 1995c. A new subspecies of Charaxes xiphares (Cramer) (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) from the Western Cape Province, South Africa. Metamorphosis 6 (4): 176-179. – South Africa: Western Cape province C. x. penningtoni van Son, 1953 – South Africa: KwaZulu-Natal province C. x. sitebi Plantou, 1981Plantrou, J. 1981. Description d’une sous-espece de Charaxes xiphares (Cramer) recemment decouverte en Tanzanie et revision de la liste systematique de l’espece. Bulletin de la Société Entomologique de France 86 (5-6): 159-166. – north-western Tanzania C. x. staudei Henning & Henning, 1992Henning, S.F., & Henning, G.A. 1992. Descriptions of two new subspecies of Charaxes Ochsenheimer (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) from the Blouberg in the Northern Transvaal, South Africa. Metamorphosis 3 (3): 115-120. – South Africa: north-east and north-west slopes of Blouberg in Limpopo province C. x. thyestes (Stoll, 1790)Stoll, C. [1787-1790]. Die Uitlandsche Kapellen voorkomende in de drie waerelddeelen Asia, Africa en America [supplement]: viii + 1-184. Amsterdam. – South Africa: Eastern Cape province C. x. upembana Plantrou, 1976Plantrou, J. 1976. Nouvelle note sur Charaxes xiphares Cramer (Lepidoptera – Nymphalidae) avec la description d’une nouvelle sous-espece du Zaire. Lambillionea 76 (7-8): 64-66. – DRC C. x. vumbui van Son, 1936van Son, G. 1936 Description of a new race of Charaxes xiphares (Cr.) from Southern Rhodesia (Lepid.). Proceedings of the Royal Entomological Society of London (B) 5: 201-207. – eastern Zimbabwe C. x. walwandi Collins, 1989 – Kenya, Tanzania C. x. wernickei Joicey & Talbot, 1926Joicey, J.J., & Talbot, G. 1927 New forms of Lepidoptera Rhopalocera. Encyclopedie Entomologique (B.3 Lepidoptera) 2: 1-14. – Cameroon C. x. woodi van Someren, 1964van Someren, V.G.L. 1964. Revisional notes on African Charaxes (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Part II. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) (Entomology) 15:181-235. – southern Malawi C. x. xiphares (Stoll, ) – South Africa: Eastern Cape and Western Cape provinces

Taxonomy Charaxes tiridates group.

the supposed clade members are: Charaxes tiridates Charaxes numenes – similar to next Charaxes bipunctatus – similar to last Charaxes violetta Charaxes fuscus Charaxes mixtus Charaxes bubastis Charaxes albimaculatus Charaxes barnsi Charaxes bohemani Charaxes schoutedeni Charaxes monteiri Charaxes smaragdalis Charaxes xiphares Charaxes cithaeron Charaxes nandina Charaxes imperialis Charaxes ameliae Charaxes pythodoris ? Charaxes overlaeti For a full list see Eric Vingerhoedt, 2013.

References

Victor Gurney Logan Van Someren, 1964 Revisional notes on African Charaxes (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Part II. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) (Entomology) 181–235. Van Someren, 1969 Revisional notes on African Charaxes (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Part V. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) (Entomology) 75–166. Additional notes Victor Gurney Logan Van Someren, 1972 Revisional notes on African Charaxes (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Part VIII. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) (Entomology) 215–264. Further notes Seitz, A. Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde 13: Die Afrikanischen Tagfalter. Plate XIII 31

External links

Images of C. x. bergeri Royal Museum for Central Africa (Albertine Rift Project) Images of C. x. burgessi (Albertine Rift Project) Images of C. x. desmondi (Albertine Rift Project) Images of C. x. kiellandi (Albertine Rift Project) Images of C. x. maudei (Albertine Rift Project) Images of C. x. walwandi (Albertine Rift Project) Consortium for the Barcode of Life images C. x. bergeri images C. x. brevicaudatus images C. x. burgessi C. x. desmondi images C. x. desmonti images C. x. ludovici images C. x. penningtoni images C. x. staudei images C. x. thyestes images C. x. upembana images C. x. walwandi images C. x. xiphares images