Sabah, March-April 2019

[atronox]

It should be Athyma selenophora amhara

[Commander]

Oops. Thanks Aaron. I was looking out for the similar twice-broken cell streak which the ssp amharina doesnt have.

[Banded Yeoman]

Athyma selenophora males were quite numerous in the waterfall trail. Each time an Athyma appeared, it would turn out to be this species, except for ONE occasion... Which I'll post in the future (only a record shot). We didn't see any females though, which look very unique if I'm not mistaken.

[atronox]

Athyma selenophora males were quite numerous in the waterfall trail. Each time an Athyma appeared, it would turn out to be this species,except for ONE occasion... Which I'll post in the future (only a record shot). We didn't see any females though, which look very unique if I'm not mistaken.

I'm gonna call it and say that it's Athyma cama

[Banded Yeoman]

I'm gonna call it and say that it's Athyma cama

Hmmm.. It was gigantic...

[atronox]

Hmmm.. It was gigantic...

Well that can only be one other species...

[Banded Yeoman]

Well that can only be one other species...

Yepp.

Concur it is A. selenophora amhara.

Thanks Dr Seow for the confirmation and references!

Getting back to the travelogue: Our shooting started much earlier than I what I'm used to in Singapore, around 8.30 a.m. At this time, the Polyommatini (Hedge Blues) were already out in full force, puddling at the car park and along the stream. It's quite a lovely sight to have them fluttering up and down the stream, like little pieces of blue confetti. I'll post my images of the ones I shot at a later date, since I haven't gotten round to processing my shots yet. I suspect the ones I shot... are all the same species.

Here are more common ones that we encountered numerous times over the trip. The subfamily Cyrestinae is only represented by the charming but annoyingly skittish The Little Maplet (Chersonesia peraka peraka) in Singapore. I was thrilled to see the other Mapwing species for the first time. This was the first one I encountered:

The Straight Line Mapwing (Cyrestis nivea nivalis)





Not long after, another species appeared: the gorgeous Common Mapwing (Cyrestis maenalis seminigra). This Bornean subspecies has especially heavy black markings. I was so excited to shoot it that I amassed about 200 shots of it. The next day, it became clear that this was one of the MOST common butterflies in the area.







Along the short rainforest trail which led to the waterfall, several species of Nymphalidae managed to appear every single day. One species which I was eager to find - and then completely overdosed with was the Black Prince (Rohana parisatis borneana). There was one instance where I found at least 10 of them feeding on a tiled bench at the waterfall! Watching them as very intriguing. It was like staring into small, busily flapping voids. I also found out that they are FRUSTRATINGLY skittish. I refused to chase after any individual, and only shot them if they landed right in front of me.


As Uncle Khew posted earlier, The Staff Sergeant (Athyma selenophora amhara) was also a very common species, seen on all days. In typical Athyma fashion, they too were skittish and I only nailed my shots on our third day of shooting.

[atronox]

Oops. Thanks Aaron. I was looking out for the similar twice-broken cell streak which the ssp amharina doesnt have.

Np! The strange thing about selenophora is that the cell streak varies widely in the different sspp.

[Psyche]

It should be Athyma selenophora amhara

Concur it is A. selenophora amhara.

In A. selenophora the FW band have 4 main spots. A. cama have 3 main spots in the band & no cell streak.

A. selenophora amhara. last row 1st image.
A. cama ambra ; 1st row, third image.
https://archive.org/stream/diegrosss...e/124/mode/1up

Another image of A. selenopnora amhara.fig 2.
https://archive.org/stream/proceedin.../n424/mode/1up


The Symbrenthia is Symbrenthia hippoclus javanus
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/our-science/dat...ch_type=starts
Also in funet.
http://ftp.funet.fi/pub/sci/bio/life...e/symbrenthia/

It was first placed as a ssp of S. lilaea , but this has been revised.
The website quoting S. lilaea javanus have referred to old IDs.

TL Seow ; Cheers.