Erionota torus torus ???

[Silverstreak]

Erionota torus torus ???





The largest red eyes skipper I have ever seen, around one and a half time that of a E.hiraca apicalis and E.thrax thrax.


Here is another view of the same individual.






PS : added second pic.

[Archduke]

Wow, the first shot is really amazing.

[Psyche]

No doubt about this. It is E. torus.
The broad wings & convex forewing termen. Small wonder they called it the Giant Skipper in India.

TL Seow

[Silverstreak]

Thanks Mark for the kind words!

[Peacock Royal]

Very nice capture of this rather rare skipper.
should upload the photos to the checklist

[Silverstreak]

No doubt about this. It is E. torus.
The broad wings & convex forewing termen. Small wonder they called it the Giant Skipper in India.

Thank you Dr. Seow for the confirmation!


Khew ,

This is the huge red-eyed skipper Nelson , Ellen and myself encountered two years back .

Do let me know if you require a voucher specimen , I have spotted a few cats and collected 2 pupae from where this Giant Skipper was hanging around.

Too bad the patch would not be there for long!!!

Cheers!

[Silverstreak]

Very nice capture of this rather rare skipper.
should upload the photos to the checklist

Thanks Federick!

If not for having to send grandsons to kindergarten I would not have gone to the patch so early in the morning!!

[Blue Jay]

Great shots, Uncle Sunny!

[Commander]

Do let me know if you require a voucher specimen , I have spotted a few cats and collected 2 pupae from where this Giant Skipper was hanging around.

Thanks. Should keep one newly-eclosed one as a reference.

Just for clarification, from the references on Malaysian/Singapore species, this one is recorded as E. torus up to species level only. Somehow Pisuth classified it to subspecies level as E. torus torus in his Butterflies of Thailand book, though I'm not sure why.

Seow has also confirmed its ID as E. torus.

As far as we are concerned, the two most reliable references are C&P4 and Fleming, both of which stopped at E. torus and that is what I've recorded as well, in my book.

Very nice capture of this rather rare skipper. should upload the photos to the checklist

It's not rare actually, voucher specimens have been collected from a number of places. The ones that you've often shot too, are those feeding on Caryota mitis and it is regularly encountered at USR. It's just that we have mis-IDed it quite often as Banana Skipper. Check your own folders of this lookalike that you've shot many times at USR and you can see the similarity.

Other specimens that I've captured are from BTNR, Chestnut, Lor Halus and even Ubin. This species feeds on both the Fishtail Palm and Banana, whilst E. thrax apparently only feeds on Banana.

The sizes can vary by quite a lot, but I do have a specimen of E. thrax that is larger than any other specimen of E. torus that I have to date. Perhaps Sunny can find a specimen of E. torus to beat that one.

[Silverstreak]

The sizes can vary by quite a lot, but I do have a specimen of E. thrax that is larger than any other specimen of E. torus that I have to date. Perhaps Sunny can find a specimen of E. torus to beat that one.

Khew ,

You are right there about the size vary, one of the pupae just eclosed and the size is smaller than the one I encountered in the field.

Are both E. torus and E. thrax both having the same common name of Banana Skipper? may be we should think of a Common Name to differential the two.