| Orange Emperor CHARAXINAE, NYMPHALIDAE, PAPILIONOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy Bob Miller,
specimen courtesy of Mark Hopkinson, Iron Range, Queensland)
|
| Orange Emperor CHARAXINAE, NYMPHALIDAE, PAPILIONOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy Bob Miller,
specimen courtesy of Mark Hopkinson, Iron Range, Queensland)
This species was probably named after the God Latona of Ancient Egypt.
The Caterpillars are green with a pale pink patch on the back of the first abdominal segment, and pairs of similar patches and/or black spots on later segments. The head has four long horns, with shorter horns between each pair, and two small horns on the tail. The caterpillar grows to a length of about 5 cms. It lives on a silk platform that it constructs on its foodplant. The caterpillars feed on a number of species of plant, including :
The pupa is green with white markings. It is suspended head downward from a cremaster from a branch, and has a length of about 3 cms.
The adult butterflies are brown with a submarginal band of black spots, which are wide at the forewing tip, and narrow at the hindwing tornus. Underneath, they are orange with thin wavy black lines. The males have a lilac tinge underneath. The butterflies have a wingspan up to 8 cms.
The species occurs in
and in Australia in
Specimens may be purchased from The Insect Company.
Further reading :
Michael F. Braby,
Butterflies of Australia,
CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 2, pp. 530-531.
Arthur G. Butler,
Monograph of the Species of Charaxes, a Genus of diurnal Lepidoptera,
Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London,
1865, Part 3, pp. 631-632, No. 37, and
Plate 37, fig. 1.
Mark Hopkinson,
Life history notes and observations of the Orange Emperor,
Charaxes latona Butler, 1865 [Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae],
Butterflies and Other Invertebrates Club,
Metamorphosis Australia,
Issue 63 (December 2011), pp. 9-14.
G.A. Wood,
Some early stages of Charaxes latona Butler
(Lepidoptera:Nymphalidae:Charaxinae),
Australian Entomological Magazine,
Volume 13 (1986), pp. 1-2.
 caterpillar |  butterflies |  Lepidoptera |  moths |  caterpillar |
(updated 13 March 2012, 11 August 2024)