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Post by Adam Cotton on May 11, 2018 8:18:06 GMT
#3 is Graphium xenocles kephisos male.
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Post by Adam Cotton on May 10, 2018 22:06:54 GMT
6. is not a Lethe sp., it's a Melanitis, probably M. leda.
Adam.
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Post by Adam Cotton on May 10, 2018 20:34:24 GMT
No, I don't remember seeing one like that either in my farm or nature. They always have at least a small spot inside the cell as well as spots outside it.
Adam.
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Post by Adam Cotton on May 10, 2018 19:19:54 GMT
Lamproptera are very interesting butterflies, looking like dragonflies in flight. L. curius tends to be more commonly found in the mountains than meges but can also be found at low altitude. Both of these feed on Illigera species, family Hernandiaceae. Interestingly L. curius males have white androconial hair tufts in the anal edge of the hindwing (visible in the right side of the specimen in the photo) whereas meges completely lacks androconia.
It is worth noting also that the bands of live meges are actually blue, but they turn green after some time in a collection.
Adam.
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Post by Adam Cotton on May 10, 2018 19:06:30 GMT
Papilio iswara is indeed uncommon and restricted to the peninsular part of Thailand, although it has been found as far north as Petchaburi at the top of the peninsula, not very far south west of Bangkok. It is a huge species, with an enormous female (over 5 inches across when spread). I remember the first time I saw this butterfly flying at the 19th mile in Cameron Highlands (in 1979) where it was not uncommon along streams in the forest.
Papilio protenor is at the extreme southern end of its range in Thailand, thus is rather rare here, only occurring at a few localities in the west (Mae Hong Son, Kanchanaburi and Petchaburi), but it is actually rather common at Kaeng Krachan National Park. It was included in the list of species protected in Thailand because it was only known from a single specimen until relatively recently. Further north in India, Burma and China it is very common, and is also found in Laos and Vietnam. The Japanese subspecies demetrius is tailed, and is also a common butterfly.
Adam.
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Post by Adam Cotton on May 10, 2018 18:38:03 GMT
Papilio memnon is a very interesting species with supposedly non-mimetic males and females that mimic species of Troidini. In fact the male exhibits mimetic flight behaviour when feeding at flowers, but not during normal flight. This makes sense, as feeding is the most dangerous time for them.
Form distantianus is a mimic of Losaria coon, note the abdomen has yellow sides which mimics the abdomen of Losaria. Only tailed forms have this colour abdomens, all the other forms have a black abdomen. The bottom distantianus female is rather unusual with a band of postdiscal spots and no cell spot, unlike the normal ones above. Form agenor gets rarer the further south you go, being a mimic of Atrophaneura varuna zaleucus and is the commonest form in mainland Thailand. Form butlerianus is a mimic of A. varuna varuna in the Malay peninsula (including south Thailand) and ssp. astorion in India. It is much more common in those localities than in mainland SE Asia.
Adam.
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Post by Adam Cotton on May 10, 2018 16:02:27 GMT
I agree entirely, stainless steel pins are the best. When I was young most people used brass pins, but they eventually destroy the specimen due to rusting from within. I have found that black enamel pins often rust too, and do not recommend them.
Adam.
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Post by Adam Cotton on May 9, 2018 21:15:53 GMT
It is very difficult to be certain but this looks like amaura from Taiwan, as it lacks blue scales peppering the hindwing. HOWEVER, similar specimens also occur across the range of protenor and some amaura have as much blue scaling as protenor. Probably amaura, protenor and euprotenor are all synonyms as there aren't constant differences between them.
Adam.
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Post by Adam Cotton on May 8, 2018 14:14:28 GMT
No, this was fresh material, mostly from Vietnam. Here's the abstract:
Abstract: 11 species of the family Saturniidae (Lepidoptera) are described as new to science. The following taxa are described: Saturnia (Rinaca) simloides n. sp., S. (R.) thibetomima n. sp., S. (R.) ngoclinhensis n. sp., Lemaireia mediovietnama n. sp. [female HT], Cricula sokola n. sp., Cr. acuta n. sp. [female HT], Actias laovieta n. sp., Antheraea (Antheraea) scida n. sp., Anth. (Anth.) luteofrithi n. sp., Rhodinia extremaustralis n. sp., and Coscinocera misoolensis n. sp. They belong to the genera Saturnia von Paula Schrank, 1802 (subgenus Rinaca Walker, 1855), Lemaireia Nässig & Holloway, 1987, Cricula Walker, 1855, Actias Leach, 1815, Antheraea Hübner, 1819 (“1816”), Rhodinia Staudinger, 1892 and Coscinocera Butler, 1879. All holotypes (males if not indicated differently) will be deposited within the Rainer Seegers Foundation in the collections of ZMHU, Museum für Naturkunde der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany. Most of the new species originate from south and central Vietnam, one species has an additional distribution in the southern provinces of Laos, and one taxon, the new species of Coscinocera, is described from the Indonesian Island of Misool, located in the Raja Ampat Archipelago off the southwestern coast of West Papua. Holotypes and most allotypes are figured in colour. More detailed work on the involved taxa is planned for future generic revisions, by now we just intend to make the names available for other purpose.
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beer
May 7, 2018 18:32:32 GMT
Post by Adam Cotton on May 7, 2018 18:32:32 GMT
Personally I don't like alcohol at all, so I don't drink beer. I think it has an awful smell but my wife loves it - each to their own.
Adam.
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Post by Adam Cotton on May 7, 2018 9:03:42 GMT
Where are they from? A locality of origin is always useful in helping to identify specimens correctly.
The second specimen looks like a Guitar beetle, Mormolyce phyllodes, but I'm not certain as my speciality is one family of butterflies. The first one is some sort of water bug (Hemiptera), but I don't know much about them. Someone else can probably give a better identification, particularly if you tell us where they come from.
Adam.
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Post by Adam Cotton on May 5, 2018 17:33:07 GMT
I believe it's found in Guam and some other nearby small islands, which have no high elevation. Perhaps it can adapt to year-round warmth in some populations? That could also be an explanation why it does well on Hawaii. Tyler et al (1994) state that the Hawaii population was imported in 1971 either from Japan or Guam. If the Guam population has evolved to be adapted to the warm weather and the Hawaii population originated from Guam, that might be why it has done so well on Hawaii. Alternatively it could be a function of daylength rather than temperature, because I remember Tom Kral told me that Hawaii xuthus is continually summer form. He said it doesn't produce spring form specimens. If that's true that means it never actually goes into diapause there. Personally I find that rather doubtful, but I suppose it's possible. Adam.
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Post by Adam Cotton on May 5, 2018 13:56:39 GMT
I think that it needs at least one month or more at low night time temperatures below 10C. Here we get that for maybe a week each year.
Adam.
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Post by Adam Cotton on May 5, 2018 12:01:32 GMT
It is interesting that the distribution of P. xuthus is limited by daylength and its need for a cold enough winter to break diapause. The southernmost locality for this species is Hagiang, the northernmost province of Vietnam which has a more pronounced winter than elsewhere in Vietnam.
I bred xuthus here in Chiang Mai from overwintering pupae ex Japan. It was very interesting that because the daylength is less than 14 hours all year round the offspring all go into diapause and I never obtained summer form specimens even at the right time of year. All the pupae refused to hatch without spending a couple of months in the fridge. They did not hatch naturally after our 'winter' as it was not cold enough for long enough to break diapause. I suspect that if I had used artificial lighting to prolong daylength I could have obtained summer form specimens. The same also happened with P. dehaanii from Japan, but interestingly not when I bred P. machaon hippocrates which did hatch without cold treatment and did produce the striking summer form specimens as well.
Adam.
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Post by Adam Cotton on May 4, 2018 11:36:50 GMT
Here are my telesicles; indeed form mendax is much rarer, I only have a single specimen and no females of this subspecies. Adam.
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