Poritia philota philota?

[horace2264]

Thanks, Federick and Sunny.

A good piece of information on the difference in the color of the eyes. We might be able to use it as a key to separate the two species in field shots.

Attached is a cropped pic on the area around the eye of the P. philota.

Horace

[horace2264]

Went back to check the same spot in CCA for PPP, and was rewarded with the sighting of 1 male and 3 females (TBC) flying around. The male was too skittish for any shot, but the females (somewhat larger, much lighter shades of brown on the undersides, and mostly dark brown uppersides) were cooperative enough for a good session of photo taking (see attached pic).

As the uppersides of female Sumatran Gem are light purplish for most part, these females I encountered cannot be Sumatran Gem, and are very likely female PPP.

Horace

[Silverstreak]

Other than the different color on the markings and the eyes ..... very difficult to discern any other differences....

[Silverstreak]

[QUOTE}
Khew and Horace,

Perhaps you both can check your photo archives on what I found on the two specimens that Horace posted.

There are some obvious difference in marking between Horace 's philota captures and those in the checklist archives on the forewing markings.

More photo specimen of the philota will be needed to establish this difference.

[Commander]

Hmm... nothing mentioned about the eyes though. And after looking at all my shots of the Sumatran Gems, there were a few without the green eyes.

C&P4's ID key is rather complex.

[horace2264]

Hmm... nothing mentioned about the eyes though. And after looking at all my shots of the Sumatran Gems, there were a few without the green eyes.

C&P4's ID key is rather complex.

May be some of your shots of SG without green eyes were PPP? One thing for certain is that a view of the uppersides will surely fix the ID.

BTW the uppersides of the philota females (TBC) I encountered have some orange patches against the dark brown ground color (seen as they opened and closed their wings, but I was not quick enough to shoot). This implies that they are -f. philota, and not -f. lugubris (without orange markings).

Horace

[horace2264]

Attached is a cropped portion of pic for the PPP female (TBC) FW underside to further illustrate the difference pointed out by Sunny.

Horace

[Silverstreak]

Update:

From the additional Sumatran Gems and Philotas I have captured on images and confirmed with upper wing sighting to ensure that they are of the respective species.

1 x sumatran gems and 3 x philota comform to the observation quoted below, posted here some time back.

Please help to verify the followings of your photos to see if they conform with these observations:


Poritia sumatrae sumatrae (Sumatran Gem)

#1 Eyes color are light green

#2 The first and second sets of chevron lower markings are convexed to the wing base

Poritia philota philota,

#1 Eyes are light grey.

#2 The first and second sets of chevron markings are does not convexed to the wing base.


Attached are 3 additional male Philota from MNT , SF , NSPL and a male Sumatran gems at the lower right from SF captured in the last 2 weeks