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Painted Jezebel
23-Aug-2007, 10:30 PM
Strange day today. Nothing much in the morning so I took shots of about 20 species of Dragonfly (Trying to ID myself before involving Tang or Yong). Then this afternoon everything picked up. Managed a +1 for my list, Vagrans sinha sinha, and also a +1 re photos, Taxila haquinus. Managed some shots which show the apex of the upper forewing, and I am wondering whether I have ssp. T. h. berthae, and not T. h. haquinus as I had previously thought!

Also have shots of several odd specimens I am trying to ID first, two very odd Euthalia, and an Allotinus. No doubt they will prove to be nothing out of the ordinary.

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Commander
23-Aug-2007, 10:40 PM
*Ahem*... Taxila haquinus haquinus... ;-)

Painted Jezebel
23-Aug-2007, 11:01 PM
Damn fingers!!! Spelling corrected.:embrass:and why I put 'Taxilus' I'll never know!

Sky Blue
23-Aug-2007, 11:57 PM
:bsmile:

atronox
24-Aug-2007, 12:35 AM
What's with the very prominent blue streaks? Part of the upper wing surface shown is that of a female, but the no. of legs shows it is a male. Something fishy.:hmmm: Very nice shots of it!

Painted Jezebel
24-Aug-2007, 08:12 AM
The upper surface is that of a MALE. It is purely the extent of the paler subapical paler patch that concerns me.

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Silverstreak
24-Aug-2007, 10:21 AM
What's with the very prominent blue streaks? Part of the upper wing surface shown is that of a female, but the no. of legs shows it is a male. Something fishy.:hmmm: Very nice shots of it!


:hmmm:How many legs does a male Harlequin has!

Painted Jezebel
24-Aug-2007, 10:33 AM
In the Riodininae, the males have poorly developed forelegs, whereas the females have them fully developed. It is the same for the Libytheinae.

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Silverstreak
24-Aug-2007, 10:40 AM
Thanks Les for the infor.

I am going thru the 100s of female Harlequins I have in my archives , to see if this is easily identifiable from field shots .

Peacock Royal
24-Aug-2007, 11:48 AM
What's with the very prominent blue streaks? Part of the upper wing surface shown is that of a female, but the no. of legs shows it is a male. Something fishy.:hmmm: Very nice shots of it!

Hi Aaron
Wah, you have good observation and good knowledge on butts :thumbsup: . Don't mind sharing with me how you acquire the knowlege apart from reading book. Also do you breed them ?

Thanks

Sky Blue
24-Aug-2007, 10:52 PM
I didn't know that the poorly developed forelegs is only limited to male? I'm always assumed that it's on both.

But take a look on the Malayan Plum Judy (http://www.b-pals.com/butts/spc_photo.php?spc_id=115&img_list_id=132) photos in our checklist, even the female photo (by Wang Peck), only reveal 4 legs (unless I got the species wrong, which is possible).

atronox
25-Aug-2007, 01:12 AM
I didn't know that the poorly developed forelegs is only limited to male? I'm always assumed that it's on both.

But take a look on the Malayan Plum Judy (http://www.b-pals.com/butts/spc_photo.php?spc_id=115&img_list_id=132) photos in our checklist, even the female photo (by Wang Peck), only reveal 4 legs (unless I got the species wrong, which is possible). From what i have read, both male and female nymphalids have reduced forelegs but in riodinids, only the male has reduced forelegs. I found this piece of info. from " a guide to common butterflies of singapore" by Steven Neo.

Silverstreak
25-Aug-2007, 01:20 AM
Yo Atronox,

May I know which page has Steven Neo quoted this?

I am an old foggy that cannot read for nuts. Thumbing through the whole pocket guide I cannot seem to find it!

By the way , have you seen a Harlequin Taxila haquinus haquinus before ? As this species is not even depicted in Steven's pocket guide! So where have you gotten your knowledge of how the upper wing should look like?

atronox
27-Aug-2007, 11:52 PM
I didn't know that the poorly developed forelegs is only limited to male? I'm always assumed that it's on both.

But take a look on the Malayan Plum Judy (http://www.b-pals.com/butts/spc_photo.php?spc_id=115&img_list_id=132) photos in our checklist, even the female photo (by Wang Peck), only reveal 4 legs (unless I got the species wrong, which is possible). Your right, Soon Chye, it does have only four legs. It is unusual for female MPJ to have only four legs. Never heard of it. Perhaps it could be the angle at which you took it from as certain perspectives will give you four legs(side shot), while others(diagonal shot), will appear to have six legs.

atronox
28-Aug-2007, 12:00 AM
Yo Atronox,

May I know which page has Steven Neo quoted this?

I am an old foggy that cannot read for nuts. Thumbing through the whole pocket guide I cannot seem to find it!

By the way , have you seen a Harlequin Taxila haquinus haquinus before ? As this species is not even depicted in Steven's pocket guide! So where have you gotten your knowledge of how the upper wing should look like?
It is found in the lycaenidae section right after the page of a hatching female purple duke. As for the Harlequin, I have yet to see one. It is in Bernard d' Abrera's book. He states that male laxita, paralaxita and taxila are usually unpatterned above but the females are mottled.