A couple of Lycaenidae from Borneo

[atronox]

Hi, everyone, so a couple of weeks ago, i visited Danum Valley. But after comparing my finds with all the awesome things that some of the BC members found there the last time, i think it's safe to say that mine pales in comparison(mostly because of image quality; i am still using my crappy D60:/, but also because it was pretty cloudy and that there was little butterfly activity.) So here are some of my more interesting finds!!!

Jamides pura tenus 2 best cropped and resized.jpg
Jamides pura tenus

with Nacaduba beroe neon cropped resized.jpg
And then this Nacaduba joined in. Seems like Nacaduba beroe neon to me.

Drupadia ravindra surindra cropped and resized.jpg
Drupadia ravindra surindra. This race is found in NE Borneo.
There are many other races of this species in Borneo but
i find this race interesting as it is the only one on Borneo that is sexually dimorphic
on both wing surfaces. This is a male; the female has the usual orange colour.

Zeltus best 2 cropped resized.jpg
Zeltus amasa maximinianus. Same race as Singapore but note the heavier submarginal markings.

Acytolepis ripte best resized and cropped.jpg
Bornean endemic!!! Acytolepis ripte. Found in the late afternoon on bird poop.

Aaaaand more to follow... including a few more endemics. This is all that i can process for now haha.

[Psyche]

Post 1 no.2 Nacaduba normani.
The dark striae are disintergrated, almost obsolete ruling out both berenice & calauria.
The FW postdiscal is dislocated & the submarginal spots are large, conical & dark.
N. normani has become a pest , the larva feeding on young Coacoa leaves. Range; Borneo, Sulawesi.
https://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/N...niMUpUNAC1.jpg

TL Seow : Cheers.

[Angiud]

Whoa, lucky to visit Danum. A place I dream to see again... and again...

Last time we didn't find so many butterflies too.... but plenty of other animals

[atronox]

Post 1 no.2 Nacaduba normani.
The dark striae are disintergrated, almost obsolete ruling out both berenice & calauria.
The FW postdiscal is dislocated & the submarginal spots are large, conical & dark.
N. normani has become a pest , the larva feeding on young Coacoa leaves. Range; Borneo, Sulawesi.
https://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/N...niMUpUNAC1.jpg

TL Seow : Cheers.

I have a reason to believe that this is probably not normani because i have a shot of what is definitely normani which i will share soon.

[atronox]

Nacaduba normani best cropped resized-min.jpg
Nacaduba normani normani. The ID is definite as i have confirmation from the dorsal.
This is the only species in the berenice group to have the wide grey border on the dorsal hindwing
which rules out berenice and calauria and which can just about be seen in the next, blurry photo. The rounded forewing apices are also quite distinctive.

Nacaduba normani upper best cropped resized-min (1).jpg
Nacaduba normani normani(dorsal)

Nacaduba normani 2 best cropped resized.jpg
Probably N. calauria malayica. I didn't manage to get a dorsal.
Sorry about the quality; this was taken from a distance.

Nacaduba sanaya best 1 cropped resized-min.jpg
N. sanaya elioti. Same race as Singapore but once again, as with many Bornean taxa, the submarginal
markings are heavier. When i first saw this i thought it was the rare, endemic N. asaga but the
vibrant blue dorsal rules that out.

Nacaduba sanaya upper 1 cropped resized-min.jpg
N. sanaya elioti(peek at dorsal)

Prosotas finger best cropped resized-min.jpg
Prosotas dubiosa subardates. Again with much heavier submarginal markings than the local race.

Cheritra pallida best cropped-min.jpg
Cheritra pallida. Apparently, freja ochracea has been synonymised with this species.

Nacaduba aberrant best ropped resized-min.jpg
This is probably an aberration of something that's otherwise quite ordinary. Maybe a Prosotas sp.

Nacaduba aberrant upper cropped resized.jpg
Dorsal of previous individual.

[atronox]

Whoa, lucky to visit Danum. A place I dream to see again... and again...

Last time we didn't find so many butterflies too.... but plenty of other animals

Yes, it was a fantastic place. Too bad sunshine wasn't at it's maximum otherwise i would've probably got many more.

[Psyche]

I have a reason to believe that this is probably not normani because i have a shot of what is definitely normani which i will share soon.

Unless there are other species of 6line blues in Borneo, I am quite confident it is N. normani.
Wingshapes are easily distorted in photos & I have learned not to rely on them too much.

You cna pretty much discount N. berenice , calauria & kurava .These have define black striae in the bands.
That leaves N. beroe & normani. The dark striae here are poor as can be seen in the set specimens & a field shot.
Note the wingshape is also distorted.
The large dark submarginal spots match very well.

The ssp of N beroe appeared to be the same in Sumatra, Malaya & Borneo.
N. beroe is not rare & there are good examples. The submarginal spots are different & the wingbase usually darkened.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2iA9V4YMtR...0/DSC_0245.JPG
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HvpFxJKK7J...0/DSC_0096.JPG

The aberration judging by its large dark submarginal spots is also N. normani.

TL Seow: Cheers.

[atronox]

Unless there are other species of 6line blues in Borneo, I am quite confident it is N. normani.
Wingshapes are easily distorted in photos & I have learned not to rely on them too much.

You cna pretty much discount N. berenice , calauria & kurava .These have define black striae in the bands.
That leaves N. beroe & normani. The dark striae here are poor as can be seen in the set specimens & a field shot.
Note the wingshape is also distorted.
The large dark submarginal spots match very well.

The ssp of N beroe appeared to be the same in Sumatra, Malaya & Borneo.
N. beroe is not rare & there are good examples. The submarginal spots are different & the wingbase usually darkened.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2iA9V4YMtR...0/DSC_0245.JPG
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HvpFxJKK7J...0/DSC_0096.JPG

The aberration judging by its large dark submarginal spots is also N. normani.

TL Seow: Cheers.

According to Seki and Takanami(1991), there are four species on Borneo with the dark lines alongside the striae: kurava, calauria, berenice and normani. I felt that this specimen was beroe because it lacks this feature and also because another diagnostic feature of beroe according to the same authors was that it lacks a pair of costal white dashes above the subbasal lines on the forewing.

On Borneo there seems to be a tendency for species to have very pronounced submarginal spots(especially females), even though the Bornean subspecies might be the same as the Malayan subspecies. So although the subspecific name may be the same, they are still quite different in appearance nevertheless because of biogeographical factors. I personally feel that it would not be very useful to compare specimens from Malaya and Borneo because despite the identical name, they are still quite different physically. In fact all the Nacaduba from Borneo that supposedly are the same subspecies as those from Malaya(that's all except angusta and berenice) look different enough to be treated as different races but are not distinguished for some reason.

The darkened wing bases seem to be a feature only found in males as Seki and Takanami illustrate a female without this feature.

As for the aberration, i initially thought it was normani as well but the dark grey borders on the dorsal hindwing are a thread so i'm stumped.

[atronox]

with Nacaduba beroe neon cropped resized.jpg
I have resized and attached the same photo for ease of viewing.

[Psyche]

All female 6 line blues have well-developed dark striae, including N. beroe. so yours is a male.

The set male specimen below is definitely N. normani as can be seen from the brown border on the upperside HW.
On the underside all the dark striae are poorly developed some being absent.
https://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/N...niMUpUNAC1.jpg

TL Seow; Cheers.
PS. Field shots are particularly hard to ID if not in focus.
I feel that the shots labelled as N. normani is actually N. calauria.
The HW brown border is doubtful , & does not match the set specimen of N. normani.
The rounded FWs & well-developed dark striae are also typical of N. calauria.
N. calauria from Singapore. Dark striae strong ; FW band usually straight; FW submarginal spots 4 & 5 pointed.
http://www.butterflycircle.com/check...yica---2--.jpg
https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5645/2...8fab0615_b.jpg

It is probable the one labelled N. calauria is N. normani because the dark striae are weak & the FW band wavy.