Charaxes (Eriboea) kirki kirki Butler, 1881

Liseki, Steven D. & Vane-Wright, Richard I., 2015, Butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea) of Mount Kilimanjaro: Nymphalidae subfamilies Libytheinae, Danainae, Satyrinae and Charaxinae, Journal of Natural History 50, pp. 865-904 : 884

Charaxes (Eriboea) kirki kirki Butler, 1881

Henning 1989: 341 (4 figs). Larsen 1996: pl. 39, fig. 492 i,ii. d ’ Abrera 2004: 495 (2 figs, as C. kirki ). SI: Figure 18a – d.

Forewing length: male 29 – 37 mm [mean (n = 14) 33.61 mm, SD = 1.405]; female 34 – 41 mm [mean (n = 4) 37.80 mm, SD = 1.941]. van Someren (1969, p. 130, as Charaxes viola kirki ) gave male forewing length as 44 mm (lapsus for 34 mm?), female as 34 – 38 mm.

Note: this is one of the ‘ black Charaxes’ that exhibit class 7 polymorphism ( Vane-Wright 1975) – having multiple female forms that never match the almost all-black upperside of the single male phenotype. Henning (1989, p. 341 – 342) recognizes four named female forms: ‘ kirki ’, ‘ albifascia ’, ‘ rogersi ’ and ‘ handari ’.

Records

Kielland (1990, p. 105) lists this as a relatively rare butterfly from central, northern and parts of eastern Tanzania, occurring in dry woodland, savannah and bush, 300 – 1600 m . Neither Kielland nor van Someren (1969 – as C. viola kirki ) gives specific records for the Kilimanjaro area. Included here as a member of the lower slopes fauna based on one male from the slopes of Kilimanjaro, 5 – 16 January 1906, and six males and one female from Taveta, c . 2500 ft, May 1905, all collected by Rogers ( OUMNH) . The Oxford female is of the ‘ rogersi ’ phenotype. In BMNH there are four males from Taveta, two males from Engare-Nairobi , West Kilimanjaro, 4000 – 5000 ft, February – March 1937 (B. Cooper), one Cooper male from Moshi, 2500 ft, January – February 1938, and three females of the ‘ kirki ’ phenotype: Taveta, 2500 ft (Rogers), Taveta (ex Adams Collection), and ‘ Kilimanjaro ’ (ex Adams) . In addition to Tanzania, the nominate subspecies occurs in coastal areas of Kenya, inland to Nairobi.

Charaxes kirki is an East African insect, often treated as having two or three subspecies. Charaxes kirki suk Carpenter and Jackson, 1950 , occurs in central and northern Kenya ( van Someren 1969, p. 132; Larsen 1996, p. 300). Carcasson 1981, p. 158, listed suk as a taxon from northwest Uganda, in which he was followed by Ackery et al. 1995, p. 449, now in error due to changes in administration affecting the Karasuk area. However, d ’ Abrera (2004, p. 494) regarded suk as a synonym. Henning (1989, p. 343; followed by Larsen 1996) included C. etheocles daria van Someren and Jackson, 1952 , as a third subspecies – but this Ethiopian butterfly has been treated, at least by some, as a separate species ( Rydon 1982, p. 63; Ackery et al. 1995, p. 439; d ’ Abrera 2004, p. 494).