Charaxes latona

Charaxes latona, the orange emperor, is a butterfly of the rajahs and nawabs group, i.e. the Charaxinae group of the brush-footed butterflies family. It is native to the tropical rainforests of eastern Indonesia, western Melanesia and far northern Queensland, Australia, where it is limited to the Iron Range.[1]

Orange emperor
C. l. brennus of Halmahera, on the equator
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Nymphalidae
Genus: Charaxes
Species:
C. latona
Binomial name
Charaxes latona
Butler, [1866]
Synonyms
  • Charaxes brennus C. & R. Felder, [1867]
  • Charaxes cimon C. & R. Felder, [1867]
  • Charaxes papuensis Butler, 1869
  • Charaxes aruanus Butler, 1872
  • Charaxes layardi Butler, 1896
  • Charaxes affinis var. gigantea Hagen, 1897

They fly all year and may complete several generations annually.[2] Males are territorial and occupy perches some 6m up in forest trees, while females frequent forest edges and clearings.[2] Their food plant is Cryptocarya triplinervis.[2]

Subspecies
  • Charaxes latona latona (Bacan)
  • Charaxes latona artemis Rothschild, 1900 (Sula)
  • Charaxes latona aruanus Butler, 1872 (Aru)
  • Charaxes latona brennus C. & R. Felder, [1867] (Halmahera)
  • Charaxes latona diana Rothschild, 1898 (New Hannover)
  • Charaxes latona gigantea Hagen, 1897 (eastern Papua New Guinea)
  • Charaxes latona grandis Hanafusa, 1989 (Morotai)
  • Charaxes latona insignis Hanafusa, 1991 (Moluccas)
  • Charaxes latona layardi Butler, 1896 (Bismarck archipelago)
  • Charaxes latona leto Rothschild, 1898 (d'Entrecasteaux Islands)
  • Charaxes latona marcia Joicey & Noakes, 1915 (Biak)
  • Charaxes latona meridionalis Rothschild, 1900 (south-eastern Papua New Guinea)
  • Charaxes latona ombiranus Rothschild, 1900 (Obi)
  • Charaxes latona papuensis Butler, 1869 (Irian Jaya)
  • Charaxes latona stephanus Rothschild, 1900 (north-eastern Papua New Guinea)

References
  1. "Map of Charaxes latona". discoverlife.org. Retrieved 10 November 2013.
  2. Braby, Michael F. (2004). Complete Field Guide to Butterflies of Australia. CSIRO Publishing. p. 174. ISBN 0643090274.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.