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Yong San
26-Jun-2004, 09:38 PM
Hello,
Well, this one was taken at Alexandra Hospital garden.
The closest match that I can get is Eetion Elia but the white portion
look a little different from the Corbet book. I am not sure about the
ID, and hope you can help me. Thank you.
regards, << Yong >>

Commander
26-Jun-2004, 10:32 PM
Hello,
Well, this one was taken at Alexandra Hospital garden.
The closest match that I can get is Eetion Elia but the white portion
look a little different from the Corbet book. I am not sure about the
ID, and hope you can help me. Thank you.
regards, << Yong >>

Frankly speaking, I'm also stumped. At AH???

This looks like nothing close to anything I've seen before in Singapore. :what: Capture it, and we may have to name this new species after you! :cheers:

It's not an Eetion elia. That species has the underside of the abdomen totally white. Your specimen here has banded abdomen. :hmmm:

Yong San
26-Jun-2004, 11:29 PM
Hello Mr. Khew,
That's interesting finding.
Thanks again for your time.
Regards, << Yong >>

Cruiser
26-Jun-2004, 11:48 PM
Welcome to the forum and possibily yet another TBD! for AH/S'pore :thinking:

Viscount
27-Jun-2004, 02:24 PM
Could it be a hoary palmer(unkana ambasa batera)?
Reported sighting here (http://www.nss.org.sg/butterflysingapore/home/sightings.htm) on the 08th Sept 2002 at Kranji by Commander, Simon and Gan.

Commander
27-Jun-2004, 10:58 PM
Could it be a hoary palmer(unkana ambasa batera)?
Reported sighting here (http://www.nss.org.sg/butterflysingapore/home/sightings.htm) on the 08th Sept 2002 at Kranji by Commander, Simon and Gan.

Thanks for the suggestion. But the Hoary Palmer is a lot more distinctive in its undersides. Unless Yong San's specimen is an aberration ("freak" of nature), it's more likely to be something else. Some escapee from plants that have been brought in from overseas e.g. Malaysia/Indonesia could also be a possibility.

The Hoary Palmer looks like this :

Viscount
29-Jun-2004, 03:28 AM
What could constitute as a 'aberration' of nature?
A defective gene pool resulting in underdeveloped wings/ different color pigmentation?

Inter breeding amongst the genus family and sub tribes?
Could this scenario be plausible? :hmmm:
If it could, it would result in new specimens that are distinctively different.
It could explain the sightings of unrecorded butts and new species like the one that Yong San took.

Commander
29-Jun-2004, 09:58 AM
What could constitute as a 'aberration' of nature?
A defective gene pool resulting in underdeveloped wings/ different color pigmentation?

Inter breeding amongst the genus family and sub tribes?
Could this scenario be plausible? :hmmm:
If it could, it would result in new specimens that are distinctively different.
It could explain the sightings of unrecorded butts and new species like the one that Yong San took.

Yes, an aberration would be classified as what you've described. Some species exhibit more cases of aberrations than others. For example, I was trying to photograph a Common Rose (not you, Neo! :bsmileo: ) at AH which had absolutely no white markings on the hindwings. This type of aberration seems to be more often encountered in this species.

Only the Papilionidae have been successfully interbred under some research projects, but that was the result of hand-pairing (forcing a pair to mate). There are some scientific papers on the Internet that you could search for, if you're interested. This merely demonstrates that it would be possible for the species in the family to interbreed. There have not been much success with the other families.

In the process of evolution, species can evolve into subspecies, and then later move away to become a totally distinct species. C&P4 talks about this in the text as well. But evolution can take hundreds of years or sometimes be triggered by some catastrophic event.

As to recording or observing some species which are unknown to us, there are several theories, besides aberrations :

1) escapees from Butterfly Parks. It's well known that Sentosa brings in Indonesian subspecies. These butterflies are not local to Singapore or Malaysia.
2) species coming in from neighbouring countries via plants. Singapore's landscaping projects uses quite a lot of plants from Malaysia and beyond. Any of these could be host plants which could bear cats or pupae which are inadvertently transported onto the island.
3) species coming in via transhipments. There have been stories of bananas and other fruit shipments bearing pupae of butterflies and moths hitching a ride on the fruits, and hatching upon reaching Singapore.
4) migration. These would probably happen from Malaysia and to a lesser extent, Indonesia (Riau archipelago or Sumatra).
5) forces of nature. Unnatural strong winds could also blow species across from Indonesia.

There are many other postulations, but these may be even more far-fetched than those which I believe could be more possible.

Yong San
29-Jun-2004, 09:16 PM
Thanks everybody !!
'aberration' of nature discusion is very interesting and informative and I do learn a lot.
Regards, << Yong >>

Viscount
30-Jun-2004, 12:00 AM
Yes, C&P4 do mention it in page 41.
There are two school of thought as to why butts evolved into sub tribes and slowly evolved onto a distinct species altogether.
One hypothetical theory was raised amongst zoologists in the latter part of the 19th century that geographical isolation could be a prerequisite for butts to evolve.
The study of cell structure(cytology) has even advanced that evolution can take place instantly.
Cytological research on butts has been carried and it was found that butts of certain species have more numbers of chromosomes than some of the butts in the same family resulting in some distinct aberrations.
Food for thoughts. :thinking:

Green Baron
30-Jun-2004, 12:03 AM
This one stumped me as well. Does not look like anything in C&P4 !

Commander
15-Jul-2004, 12:04 AM
This one stumped me as well. Does not look like anything in C&P4 !

After Simon's helpful shot (http://www.butterflypals.com/forums/showthread.php?t=310) for comparison, I'm gonna conclude this mystery by ID'ing this as a Hoary Palmer after all. The condition of the specimen and the variation of the hindwings' white patches fooled us quite abit.

The spots on the forewing tip and also the banded abdomen are also consistent with the Hoary Palmer pics that I have in my collection, though the white hindwings vary quite a lot.

So, :thumbsup: to our Viscount who thought that it was a Hoary Palmer the first time around. :-)

That makes species No 75 for AH. :cheergal:

Viscount
15-Jul-2004, 02:37 AM
Paiseh leh :embrass:
Saw a pic of the H palmer in John Moore's site and another at a different site.
The resemblences were rather close.

Yong San
16-Jul-2004, 09:38 PM
Thank you so much, Mr. Khew & Viscount.
Finally I got a new species in my collection :-)

Common Rose
16-Jul-2004, 09:46 PM
Thank you so much, Mr. Khew & Viscount.
Finally I got a new species in my collection :-)
Congrats on your new addition! :cheers:

Green Baron
17-Jul-2004, 12:08 AM
Thank you so much, Mr. Khew & Viscount.
Finally I got a new species in my collection :-)
Congrats Yong San :cheers: and a new species for AH as well :thumbsup: