Charaxes lycurgus

Charaxes lycurgus, the Laodice untailed charaxes, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania.^[3] The habitat consists of lowland evergreen forests and riverine forests.

Riverine forest at the Congo-Uganda border

Charaxes lycurgus
From the CAR
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Nymphalidae
Genus:	Charaxes
Species:	C. lycurgus
Binomial name
Charaxes lycurgus (Fabricius, 1793).[1][2]
Synonyms
Papilio lycurgus Fabricius, 1793 Papilio laodice Drury, 1782 Nymphalis nesiope Hewitson, 1854

The larvae feed on Pterocarpus santalinoides, Paullinia pinnata, Albizia zygia, Lonchocarpus cyanescens, Dalbergia, Millettia, Dichapetalum and Trachyphrynium species.

Subspecies

• Charaxes lycurgus lycurgus (Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, western Nigeria)
• Charaxes lycurgus bernardiana Plantrou, 1978 ^[4](northern and eastern Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Bioko, Congo, Central African Republic, northern Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, southern Sudan, western Uganda, Tanzania: eastern shores of Lake Tanganyika)

Taxonomy

Differs from Charaxes zelica in the deeply concave margin of the forewing, the hindwing blue spots are closer to the margin and the presence of submarginal blue spots on the forewing ^[5]

Charaxes lycurgus is a member of the species group Charaxes lycurgus. The supposed clade members are:

Clade 1

• Charaxes lycurgus nominate
• Charaxes porthos
• Charaxes zelica

Clade 2

• Charaxes mycerina
• Charaxes doubledayi