Stichophthalma sparta evansi

[daveuk]

Stichophthalma sparta evansi-Burma

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[daveuk]

Underside

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[timmsyrj]

Very nice specimen Dave, from Ken Thorne?

Rich

[daveuk]

Hi Rich

Yes, from Ken Thorne... the only specimen I have..is it this species or a similar one that Thanh is currently offereing ??

Thanks !!

Dave

[timmsyrj]

Apologies for late reply, not been on for a while, no the ones thanh is offering at the moment are stichophthalma louisa mathilda from Nghe An province, just over the border from Laos, the same (albeit, darker) as those I have from Oudomxay, Laos and in my eyes, totally different from specimens from Wang Chin, Phrae.
In my opinion they are over priced, I paid $30 for 10 males from Laos a few years back (from insectsale.com) but I don't have females yet ( Thanh has promised me 3 pairs though for my assistance in identification) but if they are selling then good for him, they are new on the market so will sell, surprisingly though for more than devyatkini which is a new species (spec nov).
There are also some howqua/suffusa coming out from North Vietnam (several different provinces) bordering China, I'm not sure which they are, iapetus and tonkiniana fly in Vietnam, iapetus possibly in Yunnam as Lao Cai prov. is on the border, but I think suffusa from China is also in far north of Vietnam.

Rich

[Adam Cotton]

"Lao Cai prov. is on the border, but I think suffusa from China is also in far north of Vietnam"

While I don't know the distribution of Stichophthalma species in Vietnam, it may be useful to point out that Lao Cai is indeed on the border of Yunnan but it is on the SW side of the Red (Hong) River that bisects eastern Yunnan and flows to the coast through Hanoi. This river is often the dividing line between Indochinese and true Chinese fauna, so almost everything south of the Red River is Indochinese in origin.

In Vietnam, NE of the Red River at the northernmost tip of the country is Hagiang province (pronounced Hazang) which is very different to the rest of Vietnam. The fauna and flora are central Chinese, and several Chinese species of Papilionidae (eg. Byasa hedistus, Papilio machaon and P. elwesi) only occur in this area.

Southeast of Hagiang is different again. Cross the watershed and all the rivers flow eastwards into Guangxi, so the fauna there is like that of China northeast of Vietnam.

This, combined with the differences in fauna southwards down the country, is the explanation why so many different Stichophthalma are found in Vietnam.

Adam.

[timmsyrj]

Looking on Google Earth the Red river runs through the middle of Lao Cai province, most if not all the stichophthalma coming from Sa Pa mountain which is indochinese side, I've also got specimens coming from Yen Bai province which is the next province along the river towards Hanoi, on Google Earth it seems that the mountains are also south of the river but coming with these specimens are 20 howqua from Vinh Phuc ( Tam Dao mountains) which are North of the river, there was 4 specimens that I was out bid on from Cao Bang province, extreme North and borders Guangxi, China these I believe are suffusa, the Tam Dao specimens should be tonkiniana and those from Yen Bai should also be tonkiniana as these range into Lao Cai with iapetus.
In S.E.China (Canton) s.sp miyana is present, I'm not sure of its exact range whether or not it's in Guangxi and North Vietnam ??

Rich