The attached photos were taken on Mangole island, in the Moluccas of Indonesia. Clearly a Tagiades species. Does anyone know which species please?
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The attached photos were taken on Mangole island, in the Moluccas of Indonesia. Clearly a Tagiades species. Does anyone know which species please?
There are only 3 species in the region so this should be T. japetus navus (ssp in Sula-Mangoli)
The inner half of the white area have no marginal spots& there are few FW spots.
Ssp of japetus in India & the Papuan region have white on the HW above.
eg
http://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/med...otra_ap677.jpg
The Papuan ssp has no marginal spots.
http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.co...p/japetus4.jpg
The other two species in the area have a series of HW marginal spots.
T. nestus.
http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php...e?taxid=279831
T. trabellius.
http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php...ge?taxid=26256
Sulawesi.
https://wanderingbutterflyeffect.fil...trebellius.jpg
TL Seow: CHeers.
PS. There are only two species in Sulawesi including Sula- -Mangoli, ie T. japetus & trabellius.
It is possible T. japetus through out its range from India to Australia have only tiny marginal spots or none.
If this right & it seems highly probable ,then this is T. trabellius.
Unfortunately there are no example of T. japetus from Sulawesi for comparison.
PS2. I am quite confident this has to be T. trebellius since all examples of T. japetus seen have practically no marginal spot & these here are very large.
Many thanks for the detailed reply.