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Post by Adam Cotton on Dec 31, 2016 9:18:47 GMT
I am pleased to announce the publication on 28th December 2016 of a new subspecies of Graphium ramaceus from the southernmost point of Burma and upper Thai Peninsula in the journal Butterflies. This subspecies was discovered by Yutaka Inayoshi when he found an unusual looking specimen from the southern tip of Burma in the BMNH collection under Graphium macareus. He guessed that it must actually belong to G. ramaceus because of its wing shape, even though the forewing cell has a complete series of bands not seen in any other subspecies of G. ramaceus. He brought this to my attention several years ago, and after obtaining fresh material and on confirmation by Kotaro Saito that the genitalia are indeed those of G. ramaceus we published it as a new subspecies named in honour of its discoverer. Here is a copy of the original photo taken by Inayoshi in 1997, and this specimen has been designated as the holotype of the new subspecies. There are also two more specimens from southern Burma in the BMNH collection which have been designated as paratypes along with a number of other specimens from the Ranong area of Thailand in various collections and a single specimens from near to Hua Hin, much further north in the peninsula, in the collection of Prasobsuk Sukkit. This represents the northernmost subspecies of G. ramaceus and is very distinct from the other subspecies of this species, which is why it was never recognised as such before. Kimura et al. (2011 - The Butterflies of Thailand part 1) published photos of a specimen from Ranong in the Kimura collection, but placed it under G. xenocles because of the rounded wings and presence of some orange scales at the base of the hindwing underside. I will post a full citation of the paper as soon as I receive it (currently I just received e-mail confirmation of publication), and I will be happy to send out a pdf copy for study purposes after I have received one. Happy New Year everyone! Adam.
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Post by Paul K on Dec 31, 2016 12:45:06 GMT
Congratulations to Adam and especially to Yutaka Inayoshi for great discovery. Nice end of the year. Wish you both more discover in 2017 and all the best to all members of ICF. Happy New Year !!!
Paul
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Post by deliasfanatic on Dec 31, 2016 14:53:42 GMT
A very nice discovery! Hmm, I think I have some macareus from Ranong that I'd better check.....
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Post by Adam Cotton on Dec 31, 2016 17:55:16 GMT
You should, because it seems that ramaceus is much more common than macareus in some localities.
Adam.
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Post by Adam Cotton on Dec 31, 2016 18:05:32 GMT
Here's an example of Graphium macareus perakensis from Ranong, note the less rounded forewing and much more angular hindwing. Adam.
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Post by Adam Cotton on Dec 31, 2016 18:55:11 GMT
By the way, this was the only macareus caught along with a series of paratypes of the new subspecies in April 2013. It may be that the two species don't emerge at the same time, but further south in Yala and Narathiwat ramaceus pendleburyi also seems commoner than macareus perakensis.
Adam.
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Post by deliasfanatic on Dec 31, 2016 20:36:19 GMT
Just checked - I have none from Ranong or surrounding area; the nearest I have (within Thailand) are all Chanthaburi.
I also checked xenocles. I have 4 from Chanthaburi (again, the closest to Ranong that I have); 3 are basically the same, and one is rather different. I haven't bothered to check Seitz, but is the orange anal margin patch (HW verso) always diagnostic for xenocles? If so, it's definitely that, but interestingly, the upperside markings are very similar to ramaceus inayoshii. The two rows of patches just beyond the FW cell are merged, and there is no orange spot on the HW recto (but it's there on the verso). There is a tiny trace of a dark diagonal line in the HW recto cell, unlike the other 3 specimens.
I imagine it's just a variation of xenocles (assuming that the orange HW verso patch is diagnostic), but it's quite interesting. I'll have to send you a photo.
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Post by Adam Cotton on Jan 1, 2017 11:34:23 GMT
Chanthaburi (in SE Thailand near Cambodia) is a long way from Ranong, which is on the Andaman coast of Thailand north of Phuket next to the southernmost tip of Burma.
Graphium xenocles from Chanthaburi is ssp. lindos, which has a similar wing shape and quite similar pattern to the new subspecies of G. ramaceus, always with an orange patch at the anal angle of the hindwing underside, and it normally has a much smaller orange spot visible on the upperside too.
Currently G. xenocles from N Vietnam westwards through southernmost Yunnan and northern Laos, southern Burma and western Thailand down to Ranong in the south is all considered to be the same subspecies, kephisos, with subspecies lindos from central and southern Vietnam through Cambodia Laos (except the far north) and eastern Thailand. Interestingly kephisos is present in Chiang Mai, but not much further east in Phrae it is already ssp. lindos. More study is needed to confirm the distribution and identity of the various subspecies of G. xenocles, particularly in Thailand and Burma.
Adam.
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Post by Adam Cotton on Jan 1, 2017 21:16:00 GMT
I thought it might be useful to arrange Graphium xenocles from SE Asia in their approximate geographical positions to show how the two currently recognised subspecies are distributed. I ringed the specimens belonging to ssp. lindos in red and labelled the location of each specimen in black. Specimens outside the ring belong to ssp kephisos. Adam.
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Post by Adam Cotton on Jan 2, 2017 20:30:46 GMT
Since I imagine that many readers are not so familiar with the similar species of the macareus group in southern Thailand I thought it would be useful to post a photo comparing the different species, excluding Graphium megarus, which has a double row of postdiscal spots on the hindwing and is distinctly smaller than the other species. The specimens on the top row all come from Ranong, and on the bottom row come from close to the Malaysian border in Yala and Narathiwat. G. xenocles and delessertii are very closely related, and are not sympatric, delessertii replaces xenocles in the far south. Nominally macareus perakensis occurs in both areas, although this actually needs more study since relatively few specimens of macareus are available to me from Ranong. The two subspecies of G. ramaceus are very different in appearance, and it is easy to see from this photo how the new subspecies was overlooked previously. Adam.
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Post by timmsyrj on Jan 3, 2017 18:35:42 GMT
Going anywhere near Ranong anytime soon Paul? or Adam for that matter.
Good spot by Inayoshi
I'm still no closer to identifying the Stichophthalma species from N.E.Vietnam, I've had photo quality not good enough (a blind man could see it's not neumogeni) and I've had females of neumogeni regulus (despite the obvious androconia in the poor photo's) maybe someone else will discover it years after Thanh's catchers. Never heard back from Monastyrski who was going to this region last year.
Rich
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Post by antonio giudici on Jan 4, 2017 1:01:01 GMT
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Post by Paul K on Jan 4, 2017 4:38:15 GMT
Going anywhere near Ranong anytime soon Paul? or Adam for that matter. Good spot by Inayoshi Rich I will not be in Ranong this year as I am staying now in Chiang Mai getting ready for upcoming season in February and March . Paul
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Post by cabintom on Jan 4, 2017 15:26:28 GMT
A picture of a possible Paranticopsis ramaceus inayoshii from Krabi (peninsular Thailand) of March 2013. No specimen collected I love your photos! If I'm not mistaken you often post on flickr. I used to follow a few butterfly photographers on flickr, but central African internet speeds just can't handle that site.
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Post by Adam Cotton on Jan 4, 2017 15:28:08 GMT
Antonio, thanks for posting these pictures here. The Andaman coast of southern Thailand east of Phuket from Pang Nga to Krabi and Trang is rather interesting with respect to Graphium ramaceus, and I briefly mentioned the problem in the paper describing the new subspecies. It seems that the two subspecies merge and hybridise in that area. In the bottom photo you can see the specimen in the middle looks very like inayoshii from the underside, whereas the specimen on the left looks much closer to pendleburyi. Unfortunately it is difficult to be certain without also seeing the upperside.
In the collection of Brother Amnuay Pinratana at St. Gabriel's College, Bangkok, there is a specimen of inayoshii from Ranong which was designated as a paratype of the subspecies, and also another specimen from Pang Nga which looks intermediate between inayoshii and pendleburyi. I deliberately did not include that specimen in the type series. Prasobsuk Sukkit collected a series of pendleburyi from Betong, Yala Province, near the Malaysian border, and among many specimens was a single one that looked very like inayoshii. A large series (76 specimens) from further east along the Malaysian border in Narathiwat were all typical pendleburyi, none of them had characteristics of inayoshii. Conversely none of the specimens from Ranong looked similar to pendleburyi, and it seems that the area southeast of Phuket is a hybrid zone between the two subspecies, where specimens of both phenotypes and intermediates can be found.
While I was working on the paper Prasobsuk Sukkit showed me some photos of Graphium ramaceus from Phuket taken by a Thai photographer which look like inayoshii from the underside, but I could not be certain as all the photos showed butterflies sitting with wings closed.
I mentioned these points in the paper, and stated as follows:
"... the authors are not including Phuket in the definitive distribution of the new subspecies at this time, since no actual specimens have been examined from there. Specimens of Graphium ramaceus from the Andaman side of peninsular Thailand from Pang Nga Province southwards should be considered as belonging to subspecies pendleburyi, with some specimens showing distinct intermediate characters between the two subspecies."
In fact it is possible that the inayoshii phenotype may be more common in Krabi, and becomes rarer as you move south through the provinces along the coast. Due to lack of specimens from the Krabi area I am currently uncertain as to the approximate ratio of the two phenotypes and intermediates in that part of southern Thailand. It is interesting to note that Graphium delessertii occurs in the same place as the above photos - I have seen more photos that Antonio took at the same time, including at least one specimen of that species. G. delessertii is a Sundaland species, and it seems that Krabi is the northernmost point it has been recorded from on the Andaman coast. I don't know if it also reaches Phuket or not, but it definitely does not reach as far north as Ranong, where Graphium xenocles is found. It is interesting to note that the genitalia of these two species are basically identical, unlike those of other species in the macareus group which are similar but slightly different in each species. I suspect that delessertii and xenocles only diverged relatively recently, and it is worth noting that both have a distinct orange-yellow patch at the anal angle of the hindwing underside. The basic wing patterns of the two species are actually similar, and it is easy to imagine how the two patterns, one mimicking Parantica aglea and the other mimicking Ideopsis gaura, could have diverged from a common ancestral pattern.
Adam.
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