About Charaxes castor (Cramer)
Scientific name: Charaxes castor (Cramer). Males have a wingspan of 75 to 85 mm, while females have a wingspan of 85 to 105 mm. The upper wing surface has a deep black ground colour, matching that of Charaxes brutus. The median band is light ochre-yellow; on the forewing it is double anteriorly, made up of two more or less completely separated spots in cellules 2 to 6, and on the hindwing it is short and triangular, reaching at most to vein 3. On the underside, the white-bordered markings of the basal area are deep black. The nominate subspecies (castor Cr.) has a light orange-yellow median band, and the light marginal spots of the forewing are either absent or very small. The ground colour of the underside basal part is either red-brown or pure black, which is designated as ab. godarti Auriv. This form ranges from Senegambia to the Congo and Uganda. The subspecies flavifasciatus Btlr. is the East African race, found from Delagoa Bay and Nyassaland to Somaliland. It only differs from the nominate form in having a lighter median band and more distinct marginal spots on the upperside of the forewing. In this form, the ground colour of the basal part of the underside may be either red-brown or pure black, which is designated as ab. reimeri Rothsch. The subspecies comoranus Rothsch. matches the West African nominate form in the colour of the upper surface discal band, but differs in the transverse band that lies on the distal side of the white upper surface discal band. In comoranus, this transverse band is yellow on the forewing, red-brown on the hindwing, and broken up into spots, unlike the same band in all continental forms. This subspecies is found on the Island of Great Comoro. A full description was published by Walter Rothschild and Karl Jordan in 1900 in Novitates Zoologicae Volume 7:287-524, starting on page 436; explanations of descriptive terms can be found in Novitates Zoologicae Volume 5:545-601.
