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Charaxes jasius Linnaeus, 1767 Two-tailed Pasha 3

The largest butterfly in the Levant and one of several moulting, larval colour changes to green. The mature larva
tropical species that survives in the Palaearctic region is 65 mm long, velvety green, and with minute small white
from earlier warmer periods (Larsen, 1984b). The last bumps covering the surface, giving the velvety appearance.
continental connection with its African relatives may have
# On each side of the body is a yellowish-white line running
occurred in the Neolithic period, more than 5000 years from the anal end to the true legs. On the dorsal surface of
ago. Flight is strong and rapid, the male is territorial and the fifth and seventh segments are markings resembling © Dubi Benyamini © Dubi Benyamini © Dubi Benyamini
chases away with an intercepting flight and wing batting eyespots, each ‘eye’ is yellow with a grey centre and thin
any butterfly or dragonfly that enters its territory; C. jasius black line surrounding. The head is green with four ‘horns’;
is even known to chase away birds (Benyamini, 1990: 112). the inner ‘horns’ are 4 mm long, parallel and two-thirds
21603-BRACHA-PARPAR - 21603-BRACHA-PARPAR | 3 - A | 22-01-02 | 12:34:17 | SR:-- | Magenta
21603-BRACHA-PARPAR - 21603-BRACHA-PARPAR | 3 - A | 22-01-02 | 12:34:17 | SR:-- | Yellow
The wing batting may be heard for several tens of metres red, the outer ‘horns’ are 3 mm long, point inwards and
#21603-BRACHA-PARPAR - 21603-BRACHA-PARPAR | 3 - A | 22-01-02 | 12:34:17 | SR:-- | Black
21603-BRACHA-PARPAR - 21603-BRACHA-PARPAR | 3 - A | 22-01-02 | 12:34:17 | SR:-- | Cyan
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and after completing its mission the male usually returns are white on the outside and red on the inside. The larva DGXOW 1 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
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to its favoured perch on a leaf or twig. The adults hilltop spins a silken mat on the leaf selected as a base, resting lar v a
pupa
and may be seen frequenting mountaintops, even without head up during the day and leaving each evening to feed © Alex Oz
their hostplants (Benyamini, D., Tomer & Benyamini, L., on nearby leaves 5-60 cm from the base leaf. A trail of
2019; Benyamini & Tomer, 2019c; Benyamini & Tomer, silk enables the larva to return to the original position. On
2020). In courting, the male chase the female in the air, completion of feeding, the larva severs the leafstalk so any
receptive female will land and vibrates her wings, the male part-eaten leaf falls to the ground removing evidence of
approach, also with vibrating wings and the pair will couple feeding. The larva forages mainly in the evening and during
for ~70 minutes, female carries the male (Eisenstein, the hours of darkness, sometimes in the early morning
2000: 180; Kolker, 2021). In autumn, solitary specimens before sunrise. Before pupating after five to six moults,
have been seen dispersing to lower and warmer areas it crawls to another branch, spins a pad of silk on a twig © Stav Talal © Ofir Tomer
where they may travel long distances to visit orchards in or the base of a leaf and suspends without the use of a
search of fermenting fruit. Rarely observed mud puddle girdle. The pupa is 30 mm long and green in colour, at
(Reut, Israel, 4 May 1997 Tomer pers. comm. to DB; Tomer, temperatures between 17-20°C the adult eclosed after a
2001b) or sap feeding. It is not clear how long they remain month. Larvae of the autumn brood enter partial diapause
active and how many adults survive the winter in warmer and feed only on warm sunny days, it will pupate in the next
biotopes; On 22 October 2004 an adult was observed spring (Benyamini, 1990: 112; Eisenstein, 2000: 179-186;
by Dudi Grinbaum and Ariela in the entrance to Ein Gedi Lafranchis et al., 2015: 402-403).
natural reserve, Dead Sea coast at -375 m (bsl); on 21 Oct.
2021 a female was photographed on a pomegranate tree 5HFRUGHG KRVWSODQWV Ericaceae - Arbutus andrachne and
in Ein HaMifratz sl near Acre, Israel ~ 18 km N Mt Carmel, A. unedo.
its known breeding biotope (illustr.), and on 25 Oct. 2021
an adult landed on Duranta bush in kibbutz Mesilot -115 'LVWULEXWLRQ
m (bsl) near Beit She’an C Jordan Valley at the foothills of TL: Barbaria (Algeria). The species is distributed in a © Moshe Laudon
Mt Gilboa, only ~ 2 km away; its possible origin (Benyamini, narrow belt around Mediterranean coastal regions, except
Shapir & Ashkenazi, 2021). These three observations are Libya and Egypt. Present in all countries of the Levant
within a time frame of four days when shortening day length other than Sinai, but the hostplant and the butterfly are
of 11 hours is possibly triggering overwintering adults to rare in Jordan, Syria (Zarikian, 2016; Latakia mountains M.
descend to warmer biotopes for overwintering, similar to Salimeh’s Syrian Butterflies web site); Regarded as extinct
Polygonia egea with the same behaviour (Benyamini & in Lebanon by Larsen (1974: 111) who never saw it during
Levi, 2004). Overwintering of jasius’ slow growing larvae is his four-year-stay because “it is impossible to overlook,
in the same annual period. even from a speeding car” and because “A prize of about
30 Dollars offered (to find it)…in the widest circulating
%LRORJ\ newspaper, has gone unclaimed for two years”. Finally two
specimens were collected on 20 October 2004 in Naqoura, © Ofir Tomer © Christodoulos Makris
)OLJKW SHULRG April to November -380 m bsl (Dead Sea S Lebanon border with Israel “approx.. 200 m”…from the
coast) to Jebel Rus (Mt Hermon) 1400 m in Israel; May- Mediterranean coast line in a “characteristic..maquis
November sl-1500 m in Cyprus (Makris, 2003: 216); April, shrubland of a secondary coastal plant community” (Bury,
June-September sl-750 m in Lebanon (Larsen, 1974: 110); 2014) delimiting jasius distribution in Lebanon to its
August to December 50-1450 m in Hatay (Atahan et al. southern proximity with Israel.
2018: 47 & pers. comm. to DB); 1828-2300 m in Al-Lazzab Eleven sspp. of the jasius group, known from tropical
reserve Syrian Anti-Lebanon (Zarikian & Ghrejyan, 2018). Africa, are regarded by some researchers as separate
species (Aduse-Poku et al., 2009). The nominotypical ssp.
/LIH KLVWRU\ bivoltine to trivoltine. Up to 120 eggs are laid flies in the Levant.
singly on the hostplant leaves at a rate of 15-20 per day, Overwintering female,
the eggs measuring 1.5 mm and spherical in shape, with Ein HaMifratz, Israel, 21.10.2021
a flat upper surface. Eggs are yellow when laid and after
several days a thin brown ring appears at the edge of the
flat area. The larva hatches after 7-10 days and consumes
the eggshell. It is 5 mm long, yellow-green with four typical
‘horns’ on the head and, at the end of the abdomen,
two protrusions that point up and back. The head and
abdominal protrusions are reddish-brown. After the first © Eitan Shapir © Moshe Laudon © Ofir Tomer © Uri Kolker
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