Sasakia charonda

Great purple emperor
Male
Male (left) and female (right)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Nymphalidae
Subfamily: Apaturinae
Genus: Sasakia
Species:
S. charonda
Binomial name
Sasakia charonda
(Hewitson, 1863)
Synonyms[1][2]
  • Diadema charonda Hewitson, 1863
  • Euripus coreanus Leech, 1887

Sasakia charonda, the Japanese emperor or great purple emperor, is a species of butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is native to Japan (from Hokkaidō to Kyūshū), the Korean Peninsula, China, northern Taiwan and northern Vietnam. Its wingspan averages 50 mm (2.0 in) for males, and 65 mm (2.6 in) for females. They are common in the upper canopies of forests, only coming down to feed or to find salt sources. The larvae of the species feed on hackberries, like Celtis jessoensis, Celtis japonica and Celtis sinensis.[3][4]

S. charonda is the national butterfly of Japan.[5][6]

  1. ^ William C. Hewitson (1862–1866). Illustrations of New Species of Exotic Butterflies, Selected Chiefly from the Collections of W. Wilson Saunders and William C. Hewitson. Volume III. John Van Voorst. p. 50. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.12625.
  2. ^ Frederic Moore (1896). Lepidoptera Indica. Volume III. Lovell Reeve & Co. Limited. p. 39. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.8763.
  3. ^ Nubuo Moriue & Masayuki Hayashi (2007). The Handbook of Insects and their Host Plants. Bun-ichi Sougou Shuppan. ISBN 978-4-8299-0026-0.
  4. ^ Markku Savela. "Sasakia Moore, [1896]". Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms.
  5. ^ Jiřina Matějková-Plšková; Dalibor Jančik; Miroslav Mašláň; Satoshi Shiojiri & Makoto Shiojiri (2010). "Photonic Crystal Structure of Wing Scales in Sasakia Charonda Butterflies" (PDF). Materials Transactions. 51 (2): 202–208. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2818.2009.03233.x. PMID 19903230. S2CID 205342674.
  6. ^ "Sasakia charonda (Japanese Emperor, Japanischer Kaiser)". Butterflycorner.net. Retrieved February 25, 2012.