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Post by nomad on May 19, 2017 17:33:30 GMT
Delias lytaea female. A rarely seen lowland species endemic to New Britain. This old specimen in my coll was taken at some point between 1884 & 1914 in New Pomerania" German New Britain.
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Post by wollastoni on May 20, 2017 16:54:07 GMT
WOW ! Congrats Peter for this treasure ! No female in my collection.
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Post by Adam Cotton on May 20, 2017 17:26:07 GMT
Delias lytaea female. A rarely seen lowland species endemic to New Britain. This old specimen in my coll was taken at some point between 1884 & 1914 in New Pomerania" German New Britain. That's a very wide range of dates. I think it would be interesting to hear the story behind them. Adam.
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Post by nomad on May 20, 2017 19:03:08 GMT
That is the date when New Britain was part of the German colonial empire, ending when in 1914 Australia took control of the Island. The specimen has New Pomerania on the data label, so it was certainly captured when New Britain was a German protectorate. What is more of a mystery is why being a lowland species, Delias lytaea on numbers taken, seems is one of the rarest Delias on the Island. I believe most of the old specimens came from the Rabaul area which has seen much devastation from an earthquake, but on saying that this species has always been scarce in collections. In recent years hardly any new specimens of this species seems to have been forthcoming from any dealers or collectors for that matter.
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Post by Adam Cotton on May 20, 2017 20:43:11 GMT
Ah, I understand now. I thought that maybe you knew who had collected it and the spread of time that they were active in the area, but there was no specific information on the label.
Interesting problem to speculate on, why this lowland species is so rare. I doubt that an earthquake would be the cause of its rarity, but perhaps this species was already under natural population pressure back in the days of the German colonial empire. Probably the rarity is associated with foodplant issues, or inability to compete with another species using the same plant.
Adam.
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Post by wollastoni on May 21, 2017 13:03:25 GMT
Well I read a paper recently (don't remember which one) where Delias lytaea was found in the garden of a hotel in Rabaul. Delias lytaea is a lowland species that should still fly in Rabaul and other human areas.
Then why is it so rare in collection ? The only theory that would make sense is a short flying period during the year. Has to be checked with collecting data. As there have been few collecting expeditions in New Britain, they could have easily missed the right period.
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Post by Adam Cotton on May 21, 2017 16:53:19 GMT
Our intrepid Laurie always collects at altitude too.
Adam.
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Post by wollastoni on Jun 4, 2017 12:32:49 GMT
Females of the eichhorni Delias group are extremely rare in collection unlike males which are rather common.
I had the chance to get a female of Delias hallstromi from Mount Hagen (Papua New Guinea), 2600m, caught by our friend Nicolas Grimaldi in 2016
Present in very few collections and absent from the Delias of the World website.
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Post by wollastoni on Oct 8, 2017 13:50:22 GMT
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Post by nomad on Oct 9, 2017 8:30:58 GMT
Super rarity. It is a pity that many rare Delias in thread are no longer on view, I believe a little work needed here.
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Post by nomad on Oct 23, 2017 13:18:48 GMT
I seems I have deleted this post, so will pop it back, and hopefully other very rare Delias will appear again here! Its a Delias Brandti from New Ireland. Its not the best specimen, but what can you do, when these things are rarely caught way up in the jungle covered mountains by just one person who needs to dangle from a helicopter to get there. This one has some repair on the hindwing but its hard to see and an amazing Candian job. Bravo! Its much better then my poor old C- specimen of this rarity but if anyone wants that, just a little trade needed.
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Post by deliasfanatic on Oct 31, 2017 0:37:09 GMT
I've not posted photo to our website for some months, due to the Photobucket fiasco and lack of time to get things sorted out. Finally, I uploaded nearly all of my old photos to Flickr today, and have replaced them in their proper places here in our forum. I'll take the opportunity to add a few new items while I'm at it. Here is a paratype pair of D. alberti alberti, collected by Meek on Choiseul in 1904. As far as I'm aware, these are the only specimens in private hands. The remainder of the type series is in the BM. There seems to be a more recent specimen in the ANIC, according to their website, although this is rather mysterious since there isn't a record of its having been collected since 1904, and there are no other known recent specimens. Anyway, hopefully it will be rediscovered at some point. D alberti alberti MF 4189 by D B, on Flickr
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Post by deliasfanatic on Oct 31, 2017 0:42:52 GMT
Here's another Meek paratype, a male of D. caliban satisbona from Goodenough Island, collected in 1913. Oddly, the only specimens collected more recently were females; all males known are from Meek's type series. D caliban satisbona M V Meek paratype 4472 by D B, on Flickr
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Post by deliasfanatic on Oct 31, 2017 0:46:03 GMT
This is a beautiful aberration of D. ellipsis (New Caledonia). I refer to it as the "feathered" aberration, formerly in the Aronheim collection. I don't know whether others like it exist. Normal males have a much narrower black HW band, which is simply a band without the pointed "feathers" radiating from it. D ellipsis M V feathered ab 4462 by D B, on Flickr
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Post by deliasfanatic on Oct 31, 2017 0:51:29 GMT
Missing red pigment is a recurrent throughout the genus Delias; these normally have yellow in place of the normal red areas. Certain species seem to occur regularly, I suppose because they are collected in large numbers; here are a few that I've not seen before. D. mitisi D mitisi MF ab 4464 by D B, on Flickr D. duris (dull rather than missing red) D duris M V faded red ab 4465 by D B, on Flickr D. nais (marked here as "green" aberration; there is no actual green in the genus, but the usual maroon-red HW looks greenish here, thanks to intermingling of yellow (rather than red) and black scales) D nais green ab 0595 by D B, on Flickr
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