Charaxes nandina

Charaxes nandina is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Kenya, in the central highlands east of the Rift Valley.

Description
''Ch. nandina'' Rothsch. : forewing above black, behind the middle of the hindmargin with an oblong blue spot in la, 2—4 blue spots in lb and then with 2 irregularly curved transverse rows of white or bluish white spots, the proximal row composed of four spots in cellules 2—5 and the distal of six in cellules 2—7; small yellowish marginal spots. Hindwing above between veins 2 and 7 with a posteriorly pointed, sharply defined blue median band, in the middle about 5 mm. in breadth, accompanied by a whitish spot in cellule 7; behind the middle runs an S-shaped curved row of 6 small blue spots and near the distal margin a curved row of 6 or 7 bluish dots; the marginal lunules themselves are yellowish; the tails well developed, about 5 mm. in length. The under surface agrees almost exactly with that of cithaeron. The female closely resembles that of xiphares, but differs in having a transverse row of 8 white spots behind the middle of the forewing above and in the smaller, ochre-yellow median spot of the hindwing. British East Africa in the Kikuyu district; rare.

Biology
The larvae feed on Drypetes gerrardii, Craibia brownii and Hippocratea africana.

The habitat is semi-dry and high forest.

Charaxes nandina is very closely related to Charaxes xiphares. It is sympatric with Charaxes cithaeron

Taxonomy
Charaxes tiridates group

The supposed clade members are: For a full list see Eric Vingerhoedt, 2013.
 * Charaxes tiridates
 * Charaxes numenes similar to next
 * Charaxes bipunctatus similar to last
 * Charaxes violetta
 * Charaxes fuscus
 * Charaxes mixtus
 * Charaxes bubastis
 * Charaxes albimaculatus
 * Charaxes barnsi
 * Charaxes bohemani
 * Charaxes schoutedeni
 * Charaxes monteiri
 * Charaxes smaragdalis
 * Charaxes xiphares
 * Charaxes cithaeron
 * Charaxes nandina
 * Charaxes imperialis
 * Charaxes ameliae
 * Charaxes pythodoris
 * ? Charaxes overlaeti