Southeastern Asian Butterflies

[nomad]

wow. That's some insect. Enjoying your posts. 

[Paul K]

Day flying moth from central Laos

This moth was collected in Savannakhet province, Phin district near stream, secondary forest and farm lands.
Does anyone know what that could be?
My guess is Zygaenidae family but it could be also Geometridae mimics something else.

The hair like scales are amazing and are all over the wings.

[Adam Cotton]

This is Pterothysanus, probably laticilia although I'm not certain about the species. These used to be placed in their own family, Pterothysanidae, but are currently included in Callidulidae.

Adam.

[trehopr1]

I saw one being sold in a riker mount some months ago Paul. Of note were the long hairs on the wings. It was not named by the seller although, I still have the picture. Looks to me superficially more like a Geometrid; not a Zygaenid. What type of antennae does it have because I cannot tell from the picture. Pectinate or filiform?
It looks similar to the Magpie moth (Abraxes) except of coarse this one has those very long hairs !
Congratulations on your 1000th post ! ! A milestone to be sure.... and one we should all endeavor to strive for.
Lovely Papilio (pictured above).... Love the "stilt-like" posture it maintains while imbibing nutrient salts and water. Can you collect all of the Papilio's you come across or are some "verboten" from being collected?

[Adam Cotton]

Mar 7, 2018 17:38:44 GMT trehopr1 said:

Can you collect all of the Papilio's you come across or are some "verboten" from being collected?

In Thailand Bhutanitis lidderdalii, Teinopalpus imperialis, Meandrusa spp., Papilio protenor, P. palinurus (a southern species) and Troides helena are protected but all other species of Papilionidae may be collected outside National Parks and other protected areas such as wildlife sanctuaries.

Adam.

[trehopr1]

Thank you Adam. I am curious why the Meandrusa spp. are included in that exclusive list. The others certainly make sense to me but, I never thought of those Papilionids as being on par with Bhutanitis, Teinopalpus, Troides etc. Are they localized species in Thailand or are the ones there endemics? Idle curiosity....

[Adam Cotton]

When the law to protect animals in Thailand was drawn up the director of the Agriculture Department Entomology Museum in Bangkok was tasked with making up a list of insects to put on the protected list. She was a rice pest expert and knew nothing about the rarity of butterflies or beetles, so she put the CITES listed species on the list and added other insects that she thought were rare, including a few that have since been removed from protection since they are common. Basically she checked which ones were poorly represented in the museum collection and put those on the list, found out which ones demanded high prices on the Japanese market (Cheirotonus, Prosopocoilus giraffa) and added those too. Of course she didn't realise that the high prices only apply to the very large specimens, and do not reflect on the rarity of the species. Later Troides aeacus and Lyssa zampa were removed from protection because they are common. In reality insects don't need legal protection, if the habitat is protected they will always be there.

Of course Papilio palinurus and P. protenor are very common species in their main areas of distribution, except that Thailand is at the edge of their ranges - P. palinurus is a Sundaland species and P. protenor is mainland Asian but mostly north from Thailand. It is only found in Thailand in a few places in the west, but is very common in China and N India.

Meandrusa lachinus and payeni are actually not very rare in their habitat, but they are not so easy to catch as they are not attracted to urine or other bait, so are poorly represented in the museum collection. Presumably the person (I used to know her many years ago) who drew up the protected list thought they were very rare as a result.

Adam.

[Adam Cotton]

By the way, both Troides aeacus and helena are very common, I see both in my garden quite often in season.

It always amazes me that there are no Lycaenidae, Hesperiidae or Satyridae on CITES or most other protected lists, but of course "little brown jobs" don't exactly have the same publicity appeal. Joe Bloggs really wouldn't care if they were protected, but a large birdwing is a different matter.

Adam.

[luehdorfia]

In Germany almost all Lycaenidae are completely protected. They just protected all Polyommatus sp. so when you import Turkish Polyommatus you would break german law, but if you import let’s say Thai Meandrusa that are protected in Thailand but not in Germany then it’d be fine.
Well, the german border police can’t really separate the Lycaenidae easily so there was one case were Prof. Rose who had ordered Lycaenidae from Turkey got his package checked by customs. Customs couldn’t decide what it is so they asked the Museum in Bonn for advice, and then Prof. Rose received a package from the museum in Bonn asking for determination of the species since he was the only expert the museum had had!
Customs had sent the package anonymously to the museum...
So Prof. Rose determined all Lycaenidae as not protected, sent it back to the Museum and a week later got the custom declaration and received again his own determined butterflies....

[Adam Cotton]

Of course I really meant tropical countries like Thailand. I appreciate that there are Lycaenidae protected in many EU countries and the USA.

Adam.

[Paul K]

After few years of research in Thailand and Laos I am slowly getting my collection organized.
In the next few months I would like to share some of my specimens.
Here is the first drawer:

Family: Papilionidae
Tribe: Troidini
Genus: Byasa

1st column from left:
Byasa dasarada barata (Rothschild,1908)-males, common species inhabits northern mountainous parts of Thailand.
2nd column:
Byasa polyeuctes polyeuctes (Doubleday,1842)-males, common species occurs in same habitat as B.dasarada
3rd column:
Byasa adamsoni adamsoni (Grose-Smith,1886)-males, locally common species found mainly in lower elevations in all continental Thailand.
4th column from top: 
Byasa adamsoni adamsoni-female
Byasa adamsoni takakoae-male
Byasa adamsoni takakoae-3 females
5th column:
Byasa adamsoni takakoae Uehara,2006-males, rare species found only in few locations in peninsular Thailand.

[Adam Cotton]

Paul,

Nice draw, looks great. I have a couple of comments:

Byasa dasarada from Laos is different to those from NW Thailand and southern Burma. In Chiang Mai we have ssp. barata but NE Thailand and Laos seem to be like ssp. dasarada, the two subspecies are quite similar, mainly differing in the ground colour of the hindwing underside.

You also state that Byasa adamsoni adamsoni is a common species, but in reality apart from being quite seasonal it is also very localised. It is common in the right locality, but not found in many places. I don't want people to think that this is an easy species to find everywhere. You have to be in the right places.

Adam.

[Paul K]

Thanks Adam for important comments. I have corrected my comments in my post.
And you are defenitly right B.adamsoni adamsoni is localized species and can be seen in numbers only in the right time, the same B.adamsoni takakoae in the right place can be found in numbers but anywehere else is rare or does not occur.

Paul

[Adam Cotton]

I assume all your takakoae are from Koh Tao. The population on that island seems somewhat intermediate to nominate adamsoni, specimens from Koh Phangan, Koh Samui, Surat Thani and Nakhon Srithammarat are always dark, whereas some from Koh Tao are dark and some lighter.

Here's the holotype from Koh Samui:



The holotype was collected by Ms. Takako Harada on 2 Oct. 2005 at Hinlad Waterfall.

Adam.

[Paul K]

Indeed they are all from Koh Tao where they are not uncommon.
The population grown in rainny season tends to be larger and lighter than the one in dry season which is smaller and darker.
There might be also this variation at the other locations but perhaps there are not enough specimens from different seasons to be study.

Specimen you showed was collected in begin of October which I believe is the end of dry season in Koh Samui.
I visited Hin Lad Waterfall few times in February and March 2016 but never found takakoae there.


Paul