Charaxes spp

[Painted Jezebel]

The photo of Charaxes harmodius made me go back to my Charaxes bernadus crepax file for the first time in 4 years. There seems to be some variation here, are they all the same species?

[Psyche]

These photos certainly throw up a lot of questions.

1. The extent of the black border along the costa shows it is C. bernardus.
Question is where is the strong steely grey glaze?

2. If you can see a grey wash over the whole hindwing it is C. bernardus.

3. The tornal margin of the forewing & apex of the hindwing is mostly tawny in C. harmodius, so this is also C. bernardus.

4. This has some highlighted markings but otherwise the poor contrast of the main patterns indicate it is also C. bernardus.

In the FH cases two differently coloured Rajahs were shot at the same time & same locality. Still these series throws some doubts.

These 2 species are closely related & C. harmodius has even been recorded from Laos according to the Yutaka website.

My curiosity is why does the steely grey sheen not show up in most of your pictures given that the ssp is also crepax.

TL Seow

[Painted Jezebel]

My curiosity is why does the steely grey sheen not show up in most of your pictures given that the ssp is also crepax.

Thank you. All as I had filed, then. Never mind! For info, only 2 out of the 20+ undersides I have photographed show any grey sheen, the vast majority are like photos 1 or 3 (i.e. with or without the forewing white markings, but no sheen).

Just a suggestion, but could it just be a minor insular form? We have already seen darker markings on Samui in Arhopala alitaeus and A. silhetensis amongst others.

[Psyche]

Arhopala alitaeus[/I] and A. silhetensis amongst others.

I think you have a point there.
The Yutaka website suffers from too much red tint so that what is grey appears purplish.(remember the Deramas .)
Here all the mainland forms in the website have a strong grey (appearing as purplish) wash.
http://yutaka.it-n.jp/cha/60180020.html

Other ssp. eg from India on the web also do not seem to have any grey tint.

TL Seow

[Psyche]

I thought with the lesser crowds I have a quick look at the KL Butterfly farm which I have not seen for umpteen years.
Essentially it was a waste of good money on a sauna, the humidity was oppressive. There was not much butterflies.
The saving grace was seeing Idea lynceus a rarity nowaday & coming upon half a dozen Tawny Rajahs on rotting banana.

Here I could observe their colour without the effect of camera.
They were not fresh, some rather worn.
All were a dull darkish brown with a varying amount of grey wash. one poorly so.They were much like LC's shot here.
http://www.pbase.com/lcgoh/image/125243716.jpg

The consistent feature was the poorly contrasted markings unlike some of your examples from Ko Samui.

TL Seow

[Lydia]

With all due respect, I'm surprised that you found the KL Park lacking. I went there twice recently and saw lots of the big butterflies that Malaysia is known for: Rajah Brooke, Red and Blue Helen, Great Mormon, Troides Helena Ceberus and Great Orange Tip among others. These are the highlights for amateurs like me. I will never climb mountains and trek through jungles so these parks do me a great favour.
There were lots of butterflies when I was there and some were drunk on the fermented fruit juice. I love the Kepala Putih and Idea species too. Perhaps you went there on a bad day. Butterflies are seasonal after all.
Penang BF has fewer of these huge beauties but they take the trouble to exhibit the caterpillars, host plants and pupae, which is a chore.
I enjoy your posts and have learnt much from all of you. Thanks.

[Psyche]

With all due respect, I'm surprised that you found the KL Park lacking. I went there twice recently and saw lots of the big butterflies that Malaysia is known for: Rajah Brooke, Red and Blue Helen, Great Mormon, Troides Helena Ceberus and Great Orange Tip among others. These are the highlights for amateurs like me. I will never climb mountains and trek through jungles so these parks do me a great favour.
There were lots of butterflies when I was there and some were drunk on the fermented fruit juice. I love the Kepala Putih and Idea species too. Perhaps you went there on a bad day. Butterflies are seasonal after all.
Penang BF has fewer of these huge beauties but they take the trouble to exhibit the caterpillars, host plants and pupae, which is a chore.
I enjoy your posts and have learnt much from all of you. Thanks.

When I went there a long time ago, it was quite vibrant with lots of fresh butterflies flying.
In the recent visit there were far fewer butterflies with many rather worn. For example I did not see a single pristine buttetfly on the fruit baits laid out.
There were some nice Birdwings flying high trying to escape.
Despite a cloudy day the humidity made me drenched with sweat.

You do not need to climb mountains or trek endless miles to see most of the butterflies you mentioned.
There are many recreational forests (Hutan Lipur) with carparks that dot the old trunk roads on both sides of the main range & the eastern highlands.

The tolled highways bypassed all these spots.

TL Seow

[Glorious Begum]

I have 2 here with colors not as per usual that I see. Confused ?