Pygmy Posy or dwaf Common Posy?

[atronox]

Nice intermediate one! The blue male immediately excludes rufotaenia. If this was female then things would be more complicated. I dunno why i keep seeing intermediates but never rufotaenia

[itsmemei]

True, Aaron, luckily this was a male.

[Banded Yeoman]

These intermediates are relatively common. I've shot quite a few recently!

Here's Horace's mating pair of a male pygmy posy and female common posy:

Posy_mating_pair.jpg

[itsmemei]

Wow! Thanks Jon. Did the intermediates that you shot have any feature of the Pygmy Posy?

[atronox]

I would add that for rufotaenia, the outer edge of space 6 on the hindwing is always devoid of orange scales (in the male, slight orange dusting in the female). In ravindra the orange scaling in this space is always more extensive.

So a combination of all the previously mentioned characteristics will have to be taken into account for identification

[itsmemei]

Yup, Aaron, that was what I noticed in the drupadia in the first pic, the orange scaling on the outer edge of HW space 6 is extensive but its mini size and the 2 black bands forming a 'V' got me confused of the ID... but that was before I came to know that both M and F of the rufotaenia are actually brown on the upperside! :P :P

Now the question is...are these intermediates a result of genetic introgression between these 2 species

[Banded Yeoman]

Yeah definitely. They're very closely related and D. rufotaenia is quite rare, so they may be forced to take the common D. ravindra as mates.

[atronox]

Yup, Aaron, that was what I noticed in the drupadia in the first pic, the orange scaling on the outer edge of HW space 6 is extensive but its mini size and the 2 black bands forming a 'V' got me confused of the ID... but that was before I came to know that both M and F of the rufotaenia are actually brown on the upperside! :P :P

Now the question is...are these intermediates a result of genetic introgression between these 2 species

Oh whoops sorry, didn't see that! Was this pygmy found at USR?