Charaxes numenes, the lesser blue charaxes, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, the Central African Republic, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.
Description Ch. numenes Hew. (31 c). Tails of the hindwing short. Hindwing beneath somewhat beyond the middle with a continuous, fine, gently curved, black transverse line, distally bordered with white, almost exactly as in violetta. In this these two species differ from all the rest of the tiridates group. Male, wings above bluish black, at the base black-brown; forewing in the middle with four small blue spots in the basal part of cellules 2-5 and usually also behind the middle with a transverse row of blue dots; marginal spots distinct, ochre-yellow. Hindwing beyond the middle with a row of blue dots, incurved in cellule 6; small whitish submarginal spots and fine whitish marginal streaks. The female agrees almost entirely with that of tiridates Sierra Leone to Angola and Uganda. - neumanni Rothsch. has larger yellow marginal spots on both wings and somewhat longer tail-appendages on the hindwing; Abyssinia. 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 habitat consists of evergreen lowland forests.
The larvae feed on Hugonia platysepela, Grewia mollis, Grewia forbesi, Grewia trichocarpa, Deinbollia fulvotomentella, Erythrina abyssinica, Erythrina excelsa, Allophylus, Blighia unijugata and Phialodiscus unijugatus.
Subspecies Charaxes numenes numenes (Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, western Nigeria) Charaxes numenes aequatorialis 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. (Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, northern Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Central African Republic, southern Sudan, Uganda, western Kenya, western Tanzania) Charaxes numenes malabo Turlin, 1998 Turlin, B. 1998 [New African Charaxinae (Lepidoptera Nymphalidae).Lambillionea 98 (2) (Tome I): 181-189. (Bioko) Charaxes numenes neumanni Rothschild, 1902 Rothschild, W. 1902. Some new African Lepidoptera discovered by Oscar Neumann. Novitates Zoologicae 9: 595-598. (southern and western Ethiopia)
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
Seitz, A. Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde 13: Die Afrikanischen Tagfalter. Plate XIII 31 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. also as Charaxes albimaculatus
External links Images of C. n. aequatorialis Royal Museum for Central Africa (Albertine Rift Project) Images of C. n. numenes (Albertine Rift Project) C. n. neumanni images at Consortium for the Barcode of Life C. n. aequatorialis at BOLD