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Post by wollastoni on Mar 14, 2017 8:36:33 GMT
Delias catocausta catocausta.
Mt Goliath 5-7000ft, Central Dutch New Guinea. Jan-March 1911. A.S. Meek. Paratype male. A rarity and a recent addition to my collection. A great rarity that I don't have in collection and a fantastic historic specimen ! Congrats Peter !
It looks indeed really different from the ssp eefi from Tembagapura which should deserve a full species status.
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Post by nomad on Mar 14, 2017 10:53:10 GMT
At the bottom of Mt Popomanaseu Thank you. Its the only Meek specimen I have. There is a good series of males of the nominate catocausta in the BMNH and a few females. All the butterflies that Rothschild did not want, went to the London dealer Janson, I imagine it originates from him and was I believe part of the Paul Smart collection. I quite agree, I imagine it to be a distinct from ssp eefi , one for the taxonomists to work on. All the other messalina caught on Popomanaseu were higher up on the summit ridge where the 1965 expedition and later John Tennent found it. One of the Oxford museum staff was a member of Tennent's expedition. He told me that most of the Delias were caught hill-topping the ridge.
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Post by nomad on Apr 11, 2017 20:08:34 GMT
A specimen of Delias neeltje. A little known species, rarely seen in collections. This one came from Ilu, West Papua.
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Post by Adam Cotton on Apr 11, 2017 21:40:47 GMT
That is a really striking specimen, superb. The huge variety of Delias species is amazing. I wonder what caused such a high level of speciation in these butterflies, it is much higher than the diversity of Papilio in the same areas, for instance.
Adam.
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Post by trehopr1 on Apr 12, 2017 1:58:32 GMT
Lovely species indeed Nomad ! You do have a sharp eye for choice specimens.
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Post by deliasfanatic on Apr 12, 2017 3:04:45 GMT
It's a close relative of D. clathrata, but far rarer in collections.
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Post by nomad on Apr 12, 2017 15:15:35 GMT
That is a really striking specimen, superb. The huge variety of Delias species is amazing. I wonder what caused such a high level of speciation in these butterflies, it is much higher than the diversity of Papilio in the same areas, for instance. Adam. The diversity of Delias is indeed great especially in New Guinea . Perhaps different mountain ranges acted more as a barrier to these Pieridae and they evolved into a host of species unlike the strong flying Papilionidae which can surmount such difficulties and these became more widespread.
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Post by deliasfanatic on Apr 12, 2017 17:34:06 GMT
Agreed - also, in connection with mountains, changes in climate during periods of glaciation would have caused Delias (especially the montane species, which includes most in New Guinea) to inhabit different altitudes according to temperature. When cool conditions prevail, these species would live at lower elevations over broader areas; in warmer conditions, they would need to retreat to high altitudes, separating populations and going their own ways in evolution.
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Post by wollastoni on Apr 13, 2017 11:07:26 GMT
All true + the fact that females spend nearly all their life in a very small area may help speciation.
IIRC Braby had written an article explaining the Delias explosion of species in New Guinea. I have to re-read it. In the mountain of NG, you don't see a lot of species, maybe 30/50 in one spot (which is low for a primary forest if you compare with Africa or S America) and 90% of these species are Delias ! I guess it is a unique phenomenon in the world.
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Post by wollastoni on Apr 13, 2017 11:08:41 GMT
A nice picture of Delias patrua shan near Chiang Mai, Thailand. patrua may be the rarest of belladonna group in Thailand
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Post by wollastoni on Apr 13, 2017 11:11:44 GMT
and not so easy to spot patrua in a bench of Delias of belladonna group + its mimics (Prioneris here) Those 2 pictures are from Sunny Chir.
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Post by Paul K on Apr 13, 2017 14:09:24 GMT
Indeed it is not ease to identify all five species from belladonna group in the field. D.patrua is not so rare in northern Thailand where Sunny took this photos, I found few there also despite I was there few days too early. I think D.lativitta is more rare and from all this group it is the only one species I have not found in Thailand. Most difficult to distinguish though are D.berinda and sanaca where male genitalia have to be checked to properly identify the species. There are five species occurring in same areas which mimics each other: D.belladonna, berinda, sanaca, patrua and lativitta.
PS. I can't see any D.patrua on that photos, it looks like all D.berinda and possibly D.sanaca but again it is very difficult to determined exactly from photo taken from far distance.
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Post by Adam Cotton on Apr 13, 2017 15:33:20 GMT
I had dinner with Sunny Chir last week, he's a really interesting person to talk to, and very friendly. He also has a reputation for quality butterfly photographs, although mostly I hear about them second hand as I don't use Facebook.
The Prioneris thestylis is obvious in both photos - top photo it is upper right of centre, with more yellow on the underside than the Delias, and in the lower photo it is flashing its mainly white upperside for the camera.
Adam.
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Post by deliasfanatic on Apr 13, 2017 17:00:25 GMT
I've been lax in adding to this thread lately, so here is a recent acquisition from an old collection. Delias maudei is something of a mystery, since it hasn't been seen in many decades, even though the island of Biak is well collected. There are few specimens known outside of the type series, described in 1915 by Joicey & Talbot. The specimen illustrated is a paratype, collected by the Pratts in 1914. D maudei M V Pratt 4467 by D B, on Flickr
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Post by Paul K on Apr 14, 2017 13:42:41 GMT
Adam There are two Prioneris on each photo.
I had pleasure to meet Sunny Chir on top of the mountain Doi Pui near Chiang Mai. I was observing some butterflies when he arrived to photograph rare Lycaenid. We had chat for a while to find that we have mutual friends and indeed he is very friendly person and good photographer, too bad that the time was so limited as we get busy with our things to do, I only hope we can meet again and talk more about butterflies, very small world.
PS. We have just arrived safely to Bangkok
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