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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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                               HJJ
 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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 2Butterflies of the Levant danaidae satyridae.indd   40  12/30/2021   4:21:37 PM  2Butterflies of the Levant danaidae satyridae.indd   41  12/30/2021   4:21:42 PM
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