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Post by deliasfanatic on Jun 1, 2017 21:29:17 GMT
I've been fortunate to obtain this specimen from an old collection. It hasn't been collected since the days of British Burma, and I've never seen another in a private collection; I think that it may be the only one outside of a museum. It includes good data from 1926, but I'm unable to determine the handwritten locality above Karen Hills. At that time, this was still part of British India, becoming Burma in the 1930s. Does anyone have information on the location's spelling or (current) name? C durnfordi nicholii 3084 by D B, on Flickr
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Post by Adam Cotton on Jun 1, 2017 22:07:01 GMT
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Post by deliasfanatic on Jun 1, 2017 22:17:53 GMT
Ah, perfect - thanks!
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Post by neominois on Jun 1, 2017 23:27:22 GMT
I love old specimens and their labels are usually a puzzle!
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Post by nomad on Jun 4, 2017 7:35:24 GMT
"It hasn't been collected since the days of British Burma, and I've never seen another in a private collection;"
Are there many specimens in the Worlds-BMNH museum. Is there any reason this subspecies has not been seen or collected since that time. I know there were quite a few colonials out with a net and that India today takes a dim view of any collecting but there are still butterfly enthusiasts there I believe.
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Post by Adam Cotton on Jun 4, 2017 8:26:31 GMT
nomad,
This locality is in southern Burma (Myanmar) quite a long way from India. Chances are high that the habitat has been destroyed, as Charaxes durnfordi is a lowland species, unlike the forest in the hills nearby which is apparently still good.
I am expecting my friend to return from Kachin shortly, and will ask him about it when he gets back.
Adam.
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Post by deliasfanatic on Jun 4, 2017 13:03:14 GMT
I'd be very curious to know. I was told this by Bernard Turlin, whose information is always good.
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Post by Adam Cotton on Jun 4, 2017 18:38:31 GMT
My friend arrived back here earlier this evening, and I showed him the thread. He said that the area around Pathichaung has a lot of rubber plantations now, but there should be good habitat remaining.
He had been looking for nicholii before, but thought it came from the area near Moulmein, so this is great confirmation of the correct locality for him. He said he will try to find it next March.
He also told me that while durnfordi is basically a lowland species it actually likes to frequent low hilltops rather than fly in the lowland itself. He said that he found this out when collecting it on Belitung.
Adam.
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Post by deliasfanatic on Jun 4, 2017 20:18:34 GMT
It would be most interesting to find it again. The female is unknown in this subspecies, although it's presumably similar to the male since that's the case in all other ssp. I don't think any DNA work has been done on this, which would likewise be interesting. It's by far the most distinct subspecies in appearance, and I have to wonder whether it might prove specifically distinct if/when DNA testing is done.
It's also recorded from NE India; I haven't looked up any of the old known locations, but I imagine that they are not the locations from which Khasi Hills material used to be available up through the 1980s.
Edit: I've just looked at Rothschild & Jordan's Charaxes revision of 1900. The type location is simply "Burmah", but it gives locations from other published papers, which include Dawna Range, Karen Hills (= my specimen), and E. Pegu, with which I'm not familiar. It also states Tenasserim; I don't know whether that would be correct for this subspecies, since the subspecies merguia (undescribed at that time) is found in the Mergui Islands as well as the area around Ranong.
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Post by Adam Cotton on Jun 4, 2017 20:44:23 GMT
The Pegu Range is the north-south range of low altitude hills on the other side of the valley west of the Karen Hills.
Adam.
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Post by africaone on Jun 5, 2017 7:32:09 GMT
it seems you got something really special ...
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Post by wollastoni on Jun 5, 2017 9:29:05 GMT
A splendid rarity ! Congrats Danny, you're the best !
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Post by Adam Cotton on Jun 5, 2017 12:00:59 GMT
I checked Grose-Smith, 1886 (Ann. Mag. nat. Hist., 5th series, vol. 18: 149-151) and it indeed only lists "Burmah" as the type locality of nicholii (note that R&J, 1900 use a single 'i', which is incorrect), but it is worth commenting on the fact that two other new taxa of the four described in this paper came from Toungoo, which is the main town just west of Pathichaung, so probably the type also came from there although this cannot be confirmed from evidence in the description.
Adam.
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Post by exoticimports on Jun 5, 2017 12:45:46 GMT
I love old specimens and their labels are usually a puzzle!
Love, no. Puzzle, yes. When Insect Company (wasn't that the name? Near NYC?) closed I bought a bunch of surplus moths in bulk. Many were from Brazil. However, the place names were in either English or Portugese, and the handwriting looked to be old (Pre WW2) German. In other words, illegible.
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mokky
New Aurelian
Posts: 28
Country: Japan
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Post by mokky on Jun 5, 2017 23:13:35 GMT
Amazing news! This magnificent subspecies is definitely one of the holy grails. Wing markings are so curious that I thought that this subspecies had been collected in remote islands such as Andaman or Nicobar. The type locality (Burmah) might be incorrect, I imagined. But this "new" finding of the old specimen confirms that it was truly collected from E. Myanmar. As Adam points, another two new species were described from Toungoo with "Nymphalis nicholii" in Grose-Smith's original description. So it is highly probable that the holotype specimen had been obtained somewhere around there. I just checked the map and I guess the hill located west of Toungoo should be the habitat. This area had long been off-limit to foreigners due to the conflict between Karen tribe and Myanmar government. It seems open to overseas tourists now. I am looking forward to the rediscovery of this subspecies. Thank you for sharing an interesting information.
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