Skipper ID exercise

[Commander]

Spotted on Friday on my short outing. Anyone wants to take a crack at its ID?

[Psyche]

Halpe insignis

Was looking at some of the old threads, and Lo and Bohold, something new.

Salient features : white spot near apiculus;2 subapical spots; spots in space 3,& 4.; 1 cell spot. Hindwing cilia strongly whitened.

Halpe key 1, to 2 or 3.
2 : Foerwing 2 cell spots; hindwing cilia white.
3 : Forewing 1 cell spot; hindwing cilia brown.

Neither key matched properly. However, the white cilia is always the consistent feature. In the smaller hesperids , the spots on the forewing are notoriously variable, in particular the cell spots.

In C&P4 pl 54/10 the female H insignis shows reduced cell spots and that on right side of pic (left forewing) shows only one cell spot.

H insignis is the only Halpe here with white-ciliated hindwing, hence its name ( insignis = distinctly marked ) .

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to All
TL Seow

[Painted Jezebel]

A very fine example of this apparently uncommon species. I have only come across this once on Samui, and as Seow says, the white hindwing cilia make this species unmistakable.

What a wonderful Xmas present for BC!

[Silverstreak]

Thank you Seow!!

You are our Father Christmas ! Helping us to identify another +1 for the Singapore checklist on this joyous occasion.

With you on board , we have learned and will continue to learn from your very detailed explanations on the fine art of butterfly identification.

[horace2264]

Khew, did you get to see the underside of the skipper when you shot it in 2007? Any white discal band?

[Commander]

Thanks, Seow. Your analysis got me excited for awhile, as I earlier had my doubts as to whether this was H. ormenes or H. zema. I never considered H. insignis and that prompted me to check several books after you suggested it. Furthermore, the Butterflies of Thailand had H. ormenes as having no white discal band, making me even more confused! (I believe it's probably a mistake that Pisuth will correct in his forthcoming 2nd edition).

Khew, did you get to see the underside of the skipper when you shot it in 2007? Any white discal band?

Yes, the white discal band is quite distinct as can be seen in the series of sequence shots. Thanks for highlighting it. What got me confused was when I referred to Butterflies of Thailand, and the pictures there show H. ormenes without any discal band.

After checking various references, I'm back to Halpe ormenes, unfortunately, so no X'mas present for us.

Here are a series of shots that I took of this newly eclosed individual, and a selection of some of the shots in a larger format.

It's always a challenge to ID from field shots, and as Seow has pointed out, if you have some indication of the size, that sometimes helps. But if you have upperside/underside shots, then we may have a higher confidence of ID'ing it correctly.

I was later able to breed two caterpillars from the same location that I shot this individual, and the cats were still consistent with reference material of H. ormenes. Unfortunately, the host plant, a type of bamboo with scalloped trunks, was wiped out and is no longer found in that location.