Charaxes imperialis, the imperial blue charaxes, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, the Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia.
Description Ch. imperialis Btlr. male – forewing above with a straight blue transverse band, which starts somewhat behind the middle of the hindmargin, runs obliquely towards the apex, gradually narrowing anteriorly and broken up into spots; the band is 5 mm. in breadth at the hindmargin and only continuous to vein 2, then broken up into spots; the spots in cellules 3-5 contain white dots and those in cellules 6 and 7 are white, the one in cellule 7 placed nearer to the base than that in 6; the forewing is black and has in addition to these spots a white dot at the apex of the cell in cellule 4, a white dot before the middle of cellules 5 and 6 and small blue marginal spots. On the hindwing the blue band is continued to vein 2 with a breadth of about 7 mm. and placed almost exactly in the middle, covering the apex of the cell; blue submarginal spots and marginal streaks; tails short, about 3 mm. in length. On the under surface of the hindwing the black, distally light-margined transverse streaks of cellules 2-7 are placed in a nearly straight line. In the female the blue median band between vein 2 on the hindwing and vein 2 on the forewing is formed just as in the male, then follow in each cellule from 2-7 on the forewing two rounded, light yellow spots, the proximal one in cellule 4 placed at the apex of the cell; the marginal spots of both wings and the submarginal spots of the hindwing are yellowish. A rare species occurring from Sierra Leone to the Congo. 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.
Subspecies C. i. imperialis (Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin) C. i. albipuncta Joicey & Talbot, 1920Joicey, J.J., & Talbot, G. 1921. New Lepidoptera collected by Mr. T.A. Barns in east central Africa. Bulletin of the Hill Museum, Witley 1: 40-166.(Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, northern Democratic Republic of the Congo) C. i. dargei Collins, 1989Collins, S. C in Henning, S.F. 1988 . The Charaxinae butterflies of Africa. Aloe Books, Johannesburg, 1-457. (southern Congo) C. i. graziellae Turlin, 1989Turlin, B. in Henning, S.F. 1988 . The Charaxinae butterflies of Africa. Aloe Books, Johannesburg, 1-457.(Tanzania: north-west to the Mumwendo Forest) C. i. lisomboensis van Someren, 1975van Someren, V.G.L. 1975. Revisional notes on African Charaxes, Palla and Euxanthe (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Part X. Bulletin of the British Museum of Natural History (Entomology) 32 (3): 65-136. (north-eastern Zambia, Tanzania: Kigoma) C. i. nathaliae Canu, 1989Canu, J.G 1989. In: Henning, 1989. The Charaxinae butterflies of Africa 136 (457 pp.). Johannesburg. (Bioko) C. i. pauliani 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. Democratic Republic of the Congo: south to Lualaba) C. i. ugandicus van Someren, 1972Van Someren, V.G.L. 1972. Revisional notes on African Charaxes (Lepidoptera:Nymphalidae). Part VIII. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) (Entomology) 27 (4): 215-264. (Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo: north Kivu) C. i. werneri Turlin, 1989 (Rwanda: Nyungwe Forest)
Biology The habitat consists of lowland to sub-montane forests.
The larvae probably feed on Sapindaceae species.
Subspecies lisomboensis occurs at altitudes from 800 to 1 500 m.Kielland, J. 1990 Butterflies of Tanzania. Hill House, Melbourne and London: 1-363.
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. The type locality is "Whydah on the Gold Coast"
References
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.
External links Charaxes imperialis images at Consortium for the Barcode of Life 99688 C. i. imperialis images at BOLD C. i. albipunctatus images at BOLD C. i. dargei images at BOLD C. i. paulinus images at BOLD C. i. werneri images at BOLD Images of C. i. albipuncta Royal Museum for Central Africa (Albertine Rift Project) Images of C. i. imperialis (Albertine Rift Project) Images of C. i. pauliani (Albertine Rift Project)