Charaxes junius

Charaxes junius is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Ethiopia and Sudan.^[3] The habitat consists of forests and woodland savanna.

Charaxes junius
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Nymphalidae
Genus:	Charaxes
Species:	C. junius
Binomial name
Charaxes junius Oberthür, 1880 . [1][2]
Synonyms
Charaxes brutus f. ragazzii Storace, 1948

Description

Charaxes junius is distinguished from C. brutus by having the discal band on the upper surface light yellow and in cellule 1 b of the forewing 6–1 mm. in breadth. Abyssinia. - — somalicus Rothsch. only differs from junius in the somewhat narrower median band on both wings. Somaliland.^[4]

Subspecies

• Charaxes junius junius (western and south-western Ethiopia)
• Charaxes junius somalicus Rothschild, 1900^[5] (southern Ethiopia, south-eastern Sudan)

Taxonomy

Charaxes junius Oberthür, 1880 is treated as a subspecies of C. brutus (Cramer, 1779) by Van Someren.^[6] Henning treats junius as a distinct species on the authority of Plantrou (1983).^[7][8]

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,^[9] 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,^[10] 26 are now considered together as The jasius Group.^[9] 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,^[10] and are considered as the jasius subgroup.^[9] 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).^[9]

Clade 1: the jasius subgroup.

Clade 2: contains the three well-populated additional subgroups (19 species) of the jasius Group, called the brutus, pollux, and eudoxus subgroups.^[9]

• the brutus subgroup (4 Species)
• Charaxes brutus
• Charaxes antiquus
• Charaxes junius
• Charaxes andara

Further exploration of the phylogenetic relationships amongst existing Charaxes taxa is required to improve clarity.