Charaxes cedreatis

"Green demon charaxes" redirects here. For the other butterfly with this common name, see Charaxes subrubidus.

Charaxes cedreatis, the green demon charaxes, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Bioko, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, southern Sudan, northern Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, south-western Kenya, western Tanzania and north-western Zambia.^[3]

Charaxes cedreatis
Female
Male from the CAR - ventral view
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Nymphalidae
Genus:	Charaxes
Species:	C. cedreatis
Binomial name
Charaxes cedreatis Hewitson, 1874 [1][2]
Synonyms
Charaxes etheocles etheocles f. lutacea Rothschild, 1900 Charaxes etheocles etheocles f. vetula Rothschild, 1900 Charaxes etheocles etheocles f. protocedreatis Poulton, 1926 Charaxes cedreatis cedreatis f. inexpectata van Someren, 1969

Description

For a key to the terms used, see Glossary of entomology terms.

• 
  Original description
• 

The male differs from that of Charaxes etheocles in the greenish sheen in the basal third of the upperside of the forewing. It is possible that there are a number of female forms not been properly associated with cedreatis ^[4]

Aurivillius in Seitz-Female f. cedreatis Hew. Forewing above at the base to the white transverse band and hindwing to 5 mm. from the distal margin olive-grey; the white transverse band of the forewing in cellules 2—6 5mm. in breadth and sharply defined, in la indistinct; apical part black with 2 whitish postdiscal spots in 6 and 7. Hindwing with whitish submarginal and greenish marginal streaks. Above coloured and marked as in the females of tiridates and numenes. Gold Coast to Angola.^[5]

Biology

The habitat consists of evergreen forests, Brachystegia (Miombo) woodland and riverine forests. Notes on the biology of cedreatis are given by Pringle et al. (1994), Larsen, T.B. (1991), Larsen, T.B. (2005) and Kielland, J. (1990).^[6][7][8][9]

The larvae feed on Albizia brownei, Albizia grandibracteata, Albizia zygia, Griffonia simplicifolia, Annona senegalensis, Dalbergia lactea and Scutia myrtina.

The typical khaki-coloured female apparently mimics females of the much larger species tiridates, numenes and bipunctatus, a phenomenon known as ‘Swynnertonian mimicry’.

Taxonomy

Charaxes cedreatis is a member of the large species group Charaxes etheocles