Charaxes phraortes is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in north-eastern Madagascar. The habitat consists of wet coastal forests.
Description Similar to pollux and phoebus, but has the tails on the hindwing much longer,8—9 mm. in length; the basal part of the upper surface is light red-brown and but little darker than the broad orange-brown median band; the cell of the forewing with two large black spots and the median band with large black spots in cellules 2—4; the hindwing above at the distal margin with orange-yellow transverse spots in 2—7; the hindwing beneath, with three black, white-bordered transverse spots at the costal margin in cellule 8;the ground-colour of the basal part bright red-brown. Madagascar; rare. 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. Related species Historical attempts to assemble a cluster of presumably related species into a "Charaxes jasius Group" have not been wholly convincing. More recent taxonomic revision, corroborated by phylogenetic research, allow a more rational grouping congruent with cladistic relationships. Within a well-populated clade of 27 related species sharing a common ancestor approximately 16 mya during the Miocene, 26 are now considered together as The jasius Group. One of the two lineages within this clade forms a robust monophyletic group of seven species sharing a common ancestor approximately 2-3 mya, i.e. during the Pliocene,"Out of Africa again: A phylogenetic hypothesis of the genus Charaxes (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) based on five gene regions" . Aduse-Poku, Vingerhoedt, Wahlberg. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution (2009) 53;463–478 and are considered as the jasius subgroup. The second lineage leads to 19 other species within the Jasius group, which are split into three well-populated subgroups of closely related species.
The jasius Group (26 Species):
Clade 1: jasius subgroup (7 species)
Clade 2: contains the well-populated three additional subgroups (19 species) of the jasius Group: called the brutus, pollux, and eudoxus subgroups.
the eudoxus subgroup (11 species): Charaxes eudoxus Charaxes lucyae Charaxes richelmanni Charaxes musakensis Charaxes biokensis[stat.rev.2005] Charaxes ducarmei Charaxes druceanus Charaxes tectonis Charaxes phraortes Charaxes andranodorus Charaxes andrefana[stat.rev.2025]
Further exploration of the phylogenetic relationships amongst existing Charaxes taxa is required to improve clarity.
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.
External links Charaxes phraortes images at Consortium for the Barcode of Life