Godart (Green Veined Caraks) No 142

    Like varanes, candiope sometimes also wanders far from its natural haunts, the rainforest. To the collector who for years is used to seeing it there, it is a strange incident meeting the species in the heart of the dry thornveld of Mapumalanga, Gauteng and Limpopo. But there it is a very rare butterfly indeed. Travelling east you find candiope almost as common in the western kloofs of the Wolkberg where dense thorn bush, varying with other trees, occurs, as in the rainforests along the eastern side of the range.

   Go to the farm Tubex, in the Wolkberg, where the Olifants River enters the mountains There I have netted dozens while feeding at damp patches where small streams cross the road. Not far from there along the river itself, I observed numbers, once in April, feeding at the sap that exuded from trees, the branches of which had been cut off in several places. Then in February of one year in the rainforests at Eshowe I took ten or more specimens daily in trapnets – males and females as fresh as one could wish for. Their abdomens often so full of banana juice that I had to drain them before setting.

   In the Malta forest – Wolkberg – I once suggested to a novice that he should look for monkey dung and place it near a sucking tree where we had observed a number of Charaxes sporting about. Two hours later he showed me five perfect candiope in addition to other species that had come to his bait.

   I have, however, never seen candiope come to play on the tops of hills, like varanes and others, although it does not appear to be unlikely that it occasionally does so, seeing the habit is so potent in most species of Charaxes. In certain respects we find candiope very similar to varanes, frequenting most of its haunts except ranging further south than the Durban in Kwa-Zulu Natal.

    I have bred a number of specimens and have discovered that this beautiful butterfly has six different forms. Especially on the underside, these change from intermediate season, to season, in which the colouration has a distinct change with markings become somewhat changed in colour and design, although keeping to its general pattern in markings

   Within its range one never can tell where you will net candiope. Very often a male darts out of the branches of a pine tree in forestries surrounded by the rainforest, circles about and alights on another tree. Like varanes it also prefers resting on the stems among the twigs where its underside markings blend remarkably well with its surroundings, though perhaps not quite so effectively as those of varanes. Here an there a specimen sports about the edges of the forests, along streams and rivers or in densely wooded glades, settling from a few feet above the ground to almost twenty feet if so inclined. More usually it flies between six and fifteen feet. I have rarely seen it around tall tree tops. It is quite alert and wary, like varanes, often giving the collector much trouble in his attempts to capture it. It frequently chases others.

   It seems that candiope ranges widely about the bushveld of Mapumalanga, Gauteng, Limpopo and the Coastal Forests of Kwa-Zulu Natal. In some areas it does not appear to occur at all, in others, such as the Magaliesberg and Waterberg, it is quite rare and local. Its favourite haunts are along the Zoutpansberg and Wolkberg, from where it ranges southwards through Swaziland to the coastal forests of Kwa-Zulu Natal, where it is very common, terminating in about the Port St. Johns area. However a specimen was collected in Grahamstown.

   The species is on the wing throughout the year, its best time being from February to April. The female differs slightly from the male mainly in her larger size and rounder abdomen, and is scarcer.