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Charaxes castor
This species is found throughout SubSaharan Africa. It is a good example of the Charaxes genus, an Old World tropical group known as Rajah and Pasha butterflies, or Emperors in Africa and Australia. The most striking features in the habits of Charaxes are their rapid flight, the partiality to putrid matter, and the constancy with which a specimen returns to the same spot. Few species are found in open country, where there are only bushes and rarely trees; most species inhabit more wooded country, and some are found only in and near larger forests. The males come often in some numbers to water pools on roads; both sexes are fond of the juice of trees, of decaying fruits, dung of animals or putrid meat. (Info from Wikipedia)
Puddling on gravel shore of L Tanganyika near forest at 2500'ASL, Kungwe camp, Mahale NP
As an artist I appreciate the wonderful designs and combination of colours on the underside of its wings.
Spotted on Sep 13, 2013
Submitted on Nov 14, 2014
3 Comments
Super shot David. Healthy specimen too.
Thanks Fyn Kynd!
Your spotting has been nominated for the Spotting of the Week. The winner will be chosen by the Project Noah Rangers based on a combination of factors including: uniqueness of the shot, status of the organism (for example, rare or endangered), quality of the information provided in the habitat and description sections. There is a subjective element, of course; the spotting with the highest number of Ranger votes is chosen. Congratulations on being nominated!