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Post by Adam Cotton on May 4, 2018 10:17:12 GMT
Sunny was a very close friend of Prasobsuk Sukkit, so now they are together chasing butterflies again. Here's a photo for everyone to see: From left: me, Sunny, Antonio and Prasobsuk. Adam.
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Post by Adam Cotton on May 4, 2018 8:35:01 GMT
Really sad news, Antonio Giudici e-mailed me to let me know and I have just seen your post.
As well as a great butterfly photographer he was a really fantastic fun character, very kind and with lots of interesting things to talk about, a real loss to the community, especially in Singapore (his home) where he was one of the top butterfly experts.
RIP Sunny.
Adam.
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Post by Adam Cotton on May 3, 2018 21:13:11 GMT
I don't have any danisepa-like females at all, you are lucky to have one. I have seen photos of a few from Malaysia, it is a much commoner form there, as the model is also commoner than in Thailand.
I see we both have a single male niasicus. It's not rare in the wild, but rarely available.
Adam.
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Post by Adam Cotton on May 3, 2018 20:17:15 GMT
... and here is my draw of specimens from Laos: Column 1 - 3 females from Luang Nam Tha, NW Laos, columns 2-3 Thabok (90 km east of Vientiane), column 4 E Laos. Quite a lot of my collection has not yet been spread, so I have only spread females from Luang Nam Tha, for instance. Adam. PS. Form danisepa is not common in Thabok compared to the normal form ( Euploea mulciber mimic), but I spread all of those. The normal form is much more common, maybe 1 in 20 or even less are form danisepa. It is also worth noting that I have never seen the female of form danisepa, it does exist in nature, but it is very rare.
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Post by Adam Cotton on May 3, 2018 20:12:19 GMT
Here is my draw of Thai paradoxa: Column 1 from left top Assam, India, the rest and column 2 are from Burma, columns 3 and 4 are from Thailand. Adam.
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Post by Adam Cotton on May 3, 2018 19:53:24 GMT
Hey Paul, that P. arcturus must be a tough one to find in N.Thailand. You only managed to get one. Maybe you only managed one visit up that way... Sure is a dandy! I would have no problem filling an entire drawer with (males)and another with (females) of that one as I'll bet it's variable in it's color. P. arcturus only occurs on the higher mountains of Thailand, with peaks well over 1500m, usually at least 1800m+. Almost all of them are inside national parks, so it's difficult to find places where this species can be legally collected nowadays. I have never caught this species in Thailand, and actually have only ever caught a single male myself, at 1,020m on a 1,800m mountain (Phou Chomvoy) east of Lak Sao, Laos. They very rarely come down to lower altitude, although they have very occasionally been seen at about 700m near the Vietnam border east of Lak Sao. Inayoshi recently photographed a female laying an egg, at Doi Inthanon above 2000m, on Melicope ptelefolia but it also feeds on Tetradium fraxinifolium and Zanthoxylum acanthopodium on that mountain. Adam.
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Post by Adam Cotton on May 3, 2018 15:23:21 GMT
I am also glad that you are posting these pictures, as it gives me a chance to share my knowledge with everyone and a focus for discussion.
Adam.
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Post by Adam Cotton on May 3, 2018 9:41:20 GMT
It should also be mentioned that in Thailand P. slateri slateri is only found in the north west, mainly Mae Hong Son. In the rest of mainland Thailand and Laos it is ssp. marginata. In Ranong near the southern tip of Burma it is ssp. tavoyanus and in the far south is ssp. perses as in W. Malaysia and Sumatra.
Adam.
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Post by Adam Cotton on May 3, 2018 9:36:56 GMT
Drawer #5 Family: PapilionidaeTribe: PapilioniniGenus: Papilio ( subgenus : Chilasa ) Col.1 Papilio agestor agestor Gray,1831, males, locally common in the mountains of North Thailand. Col.2 Papilio epycides hypochra Jordan,1909, males, occurs in the same habitat as P.agestorCol.3 ( from bottom ) Papilio slateri marginata Obertur,1893, two males, uncommon species I have found only in central Laos in lowland primary forest. Papilio slateri slateri Hewitson,[1859], male, also uncommon as previous subspecies, can be found locally in Northern Thailand. Papilio clytia clytia Linnaeus,1758, three males form dissimilis, common in Thailand and Laos in lowland primary forests. Col.4 ( from bottom ) Papilio clytia clytia Linnaeus,1758, males, 1-f. clytia, 2,3-f. onpape, 4,5-f. dissimilima, 6-f. dissimilisCol.5 Papilio paradoxa telearchus Hewitson,1852, males, rare in Thailand, I have found uncommon in Central Laos in lowland primary forest. All the species of subgenus Chilasa occur in Thailand and Laos are mimetic to Danainae in particular to Parantica and Euploea species. It is worth noting that Papilio agestor and epycides are univoltine, only occurring immediately after the cool season (late January to April, depending on locality and weather), so they are only common once per year. They are only found on or near mountains as the females live at high altitude, but males fly down to the lowlands nearby. Papilio epycides tends to have a shorter flight period than P. agestor, both species feed on montane species of Litsea or Cinnamomum. P. slateri seems to be univoltine in mainland SE Asia, also only occurring in 'spring', but is multivoltine in Sundaland. P. clytia and paradoxa are multivoltine, flying several times a year. P. clytia is commonly found around secondary growth, where it feeds on Litsea glutinosa, but paradoxa is rather local, generally confined to wet low altitude forest, but I have found it to be common in the vicinity of Luang Nam Tha town, NW Laos, outside the forest. I expect that the distribution is dependant on the presence of Cinnamomum or Machilus, the larval hosts. All species in the Chilasa group feed on species of Lauraceae, and are actually related to the American Papilio species rather than the Asian ones. Adam.
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Post by Adam Cotton on May 2, 2018 17:06:40 GMT
P. polytes female f. cyreus I guess that is a typo, as the form name is cyrus, not cyreus. I keep a pure bred bloodline of this recessive form, and prevent inbreeding by putting some specimens in the cage with normal polytes, then whenever a female form cyrus hatches among the normal ones it is used for breeding with the cyrus line. That is the only way to ensure that only the male-like cyrus gene is maintained in that bloodline, since it is impossible to tell by looking at males which genes they are carrying. Vietnamese polytes seems intermediate to ssp. polytes. In Hagiang, the far northernmost province, there are some really unusual forms, both males (left column) and females (right): As well as normal males (some looking like ssp. polytes, others like ssp. romulus) some of them seem almost mimetic, and the females can have narrowed hindwings reminiscent of Papilio elwesi which also only occurs in that province in Vietnam. Adam.
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Post by Adam Cotton on Apr 30, 2018 18:25:32 GMT
According to Kielland (1990, Butterflies of Tanzania) the most obvious difference is the very large white postdiscal markings of the fw underside. Combine that with deliasfanatic's distinguishing character for the upperside and you should be more confident of identifying these very difficult species.
Adam.
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Post by Adam Cotton on Apr 30, 2018 15:01:09 GMT
Only males of Papilio paris fly down to the lowland around forested mountainsides, the females stay up at higher elevations where they lay their eggs, mainly on Toddalia asiatica. Larvae are intolerant of high temperatures, and cannot survive in the lowlands. Papilio arcturus is rarely seen below 1,000 m and is only found on mountains of at least 1,500m. On the other hand both males and females of P. alcmenor can be found at lower elevations in humid forest habitat, not just around mountaintops. Ssp. publilius occurs in western Thailand and southern Burma, whereas P. alcmenor in Nan province and Laos seems to belong to ssp. alcmenor. The female is a very good mimic of Byasa polyeuctes but note that the body is black similar to mimetic females of P. polytes, not red like Byasa species. The only mimetic Papilio species with red on the abdomenis P. bootes. I have found both males and females of P. alcmenor at only 200m altitude in Laos. Papilio castor, however, is only found below about 500m or so and feeds exclusively on Glycosmis species, mainly pentaphylla and citrifolia.
Adam.
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Post by Adam Cotton on Apr 27, 2018 13:43:59 GMT
No, I didn’t find P.nephelus nor helenus on Koh Tao I thought you might not, it's probably too dry for them there, nephelus particularly does not like dry habitats. Also of course, presence of host plants would be a very important factor. P. helenus can use a much wider range of Rutaceae than nephelus, even happy to lay on Citrus, whereas nephelus prefers Micromelum, Zanthoxylum and Clausena spp. The cyrus form of the female is not very rare, but does depend on the frequency of the gene in the population, similar to the butlerianus form of P. memnon agenor which is also a recessive gene, but in places where the model for butlerianus, Atrophaneura varuna female, is present it is not uncommon (Malay Peninsula and NE India). As you say, it is easy to mistake form cyrus for males and thus ignore them. Adam.
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Post by Adam Cotton on Apr 27, 2018 8:35:56 GMT
Papilio polytes also has a male-like female form called cyrus in ssp. romulus (other subspecies have different form names), which is a recessive gene, so only expressed when the butterfly carries a pair of the gene. I have found that heterozygous females (ones carrying one mimetic gene and one male-like gene) often look like the female at the bottom of the column, with the white hindwing patch in a band rather than a round spot.
Papilio helenus can be found at higher altitudes than P. nephelus which is generally not found above 1000m. and is a wet lowland forest species.
Did you find nephelus on Koh Tao?
Adam.
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Post by Adam Cotton on Apr 26, 2018 14:49:11 GMT
They seem to be Crustaceans rather than insects, but it really would help if you told us which part of the world your bathroom is in.
Adam.
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