Looking for Curetis bulis in Singapore.

[Psyche]

Curetis bulis is a fairly common Sunbeam that although recorded in Singapore before appeared to have become extinct.
It is very easily confused with C santana on the underside.

There appeared to a lot of error images, not just on the net but with the reference books as well.
The errors which had cause so much confusion are:

Yutaka website. A series of C. acuta images had been inadvertently added to C. bulis (Those with pointy angular wings.).
http://yutaka.it-n.jp/lyc3/84030001.html

C&P4 plate 34 no 18 which is the underside of C. bulis & not santana.

Fleming L378 which is the upperside & underside of male C. santana & not C. bulis.
Fleming L379 Un. which is the underside of C. bulis female & not C. santana.


C. santana. HW postdiscal mark (part of the band) in space 6 in line with the mark in space 7.
Submarginal marks in space 6 & 7 out of alignment.
Palpi red-spotted.
Typical male & female.


Less obvious example.



C. bulis. HW postdiscal mark in space 6 often narrow & tuck under & inwards (basad) from the mark in space 7.
Submarginal marks in space 6 & 7 more or less aligned end to end (if present).
Palpi red-spotted.
Two examples. Note red-spotted palpi



A 3rd species with a similar slanting postdiscal band may be mentioned in case it turns up as well.
C. felderi HW postdiscal mark 6 tuck under mark 7 as in bulis, but submarginal marks out of alignment as in santana.
Palpi are white & unspotted.
This example from Brunei have a more extreme inward postdiscal mark 6.




Unfortunately there are no image shot so far of C. bulis.

This website has an image of C. bulis labelled as C. santana purportedly from Singapore.
http://www.learnaboutbutterflies.com/Taxonomy%202.htm

TL Seow

[Commander]

Considering that the species is not uncommon in Malaysia, C. bulis should turn up one day or another. Also, knowing that the female is white rather than orange-red as in the usual Curetis spp. it should be beyond any doubt if one of our members encounter a "white" Sunbeam in Singapore.

[Psyche]

Considering that the species is not uncommon in Malaysia, C. bulis should turn up one day or another. Also, knowing that the female is white rather than orange-red as in the usual Curetis spp. it should be beyond any doubt if one of our members encounter a "white" Sunbeam in Singapore.

A peculiarity of the bulis group would be the great rarity of the female.
No-one seems to have posted a field shot of a female C. santana yet.

TL Seow

[Commander]

A peculiarity of the bulis group would be the great rarity of the female.
No-one seems to have posted a field shot of a female C. santana yet.

The female C. santana is indeed rarer, but probably because of the locations that we frequent, and our members' preference to post photographically high standard shots. I'm quite sure that if we ask, there will be some shots lurking in our members' hard disks somewhere.

Horace, did you shoot any female C. santana ovipositing when you did the Blog article? I presume you saw the female in the field ovipositing?

[horace2264]

Horace, did you shoot any female C. santana ovipositing when you did the Blog article? I presume you saw the female in the field ovipositing?

I did not have my camera with me when I witnessed the female ovipositing. It was a rather tattered specimen and did not give me a glimpse of its upperside.