Charaxes dowsetti
{{Short description|Species of butterfly}}
{{Speciesbox
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| taxon = Charaxes dowsetti
| authority = Henning, 1989 Henning, S.F. 1988 [1989]. The Charaxinae butterflies of Africa. Aloe Books, Johannesburg, 1-457[http://www.nic.funet.fi/pub/sci/bio/life/insecta/lepidoptera/ditrysia/papilionoidea/nymphalidae/charaxinae/charaxes/ "Charaxes Ochsenheimer, 1816"] at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms
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Charaxes dowsetti is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found on the Nyika Plateau in Malawi.{{Cite web |url=http://atbutterflies.com/downloads/nymphalidae_charaxini.doc |title=Afrotropical Butterflies: File H - Charaxinae - Tribe Charaxini |access-date=2012-05-22 |archive-date=2013-11-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131109071734/http://atbutterflies.com/downloads/nymphalidae_charaxini.doc |url-status=dead }} The habitat consists of montane forests at altitudes above 2,200 meters.
The larvae feed on Agarista salicifolia.
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,{{Cite book|title=Butterflies of the World: Charaxes 1|last=Turlin|first=B.|publisher=Goecke & Evers|year=2005|isbn=3937783156|location=Keltern|pages=2–3|editor-last=Bauer & Frankenbach|volume=22}} 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, 26 are now considered together as The jasius Group. 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,[http://www.nymphalidae.net/Aduse-Pokuetal2009.pdf/ "Out of Africa again: A phylogenetic hypothesis of the genus Charaxes (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) based on five gene regions"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190725181224/http://www.nymphalidae.net/Aduse-Pokuetal2009.pdf |date=2019-07-25 }}. Aduse-Poku, Vingerhoedt, Wahlberg. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution (2009) 53;463–478 and are considered as the jasius subgroup. 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):
Clade 1: jasius subgroup (7 species)
Clade 2: contains the well-populated three additional subgroups (19 species) of the jasius Group: called the brutus, pollux, and eudoxus subgroups.
- the pollux subgroup (4 species):
- Charaxes pollux
- Charaxes phoebus
- Charaxes ansorgei
- Charaxes dowsetti
Further exploration of the phylogenetic relationships amongst existing Charaxes taxa is required to improve clarity.
References
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External links
- [http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Taxbrowser_Taxonpage?taxon=Charaxes+dowsetti&searchTax=Search+Taxonomy Charaxes dowsetti images, & links to Public Data] at BOLDSystems.v4
- [http://projects.bebif.be/enbi/albertinerift/butterfly/taxoninfo?id=408 Images of C. dowsetti] Royal Museum for Central Africa (Albertine Rift Project)
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Category:Butterflies described in 1989
Category:Endemic fauna of Malawi
Category:Butterflies of Africa
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