Tanaecia cocytus ambrysus + 1 to ID

[Painted Jezebel]

Butt activity much better today, though could not add to my species total. However, a +1 for photographs, which, again, will probably be new to most of you. Tanaecia cocytus ambrysus (The Lavender Count) - Looks all brown to me!! This is the female, the male lacks the forewing white spots. (SC - another for your list!) Tried to get the underside, but she was shy!

Also, I saw this blue sunning itself. Its underside looked like Chilades lajus tavoyanus, and, not remembering if I already had photos of it, I took some more. One thing worries me about this ID, the hindwing submarginal spots look too pronounced for this species, though you may know better. Comments please.

Thanks

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[Sky Blue]

The closer blue we have here - Chilades pandava, compare the male upper side photo in out checklist & C&P4, you can see the hindwing submarginal spots in C&P4 is quite prominent compare to the one in our checklist, so it can be variable (for the close cousin)?

I can't see any different for the Tanaecia cocytus ambrysus with the Malaysia subspecies Tanaecia cocytus cocytus

[Painted Jezebel]

Thanks SC for those comments. I hadn't realised that Chilades lajus was not on the Singapore checklist! It is so common here, I wrongly assumed it was. In the morning light, I can see the spots on one pic a bit better, so I can simply assume that it is a well-marked example, probably very fresh.

With regards to the Tanaecia cocytus, it is very confusing. In his book, Ek-Amnuay only mentions T. c. ambrysus. Pinratana only mentions T. c. cocytus, and Yutaka's website mentions both for Thailand. I had not looked at the website for this species before, and can see that the former ssp. is only in the North-Eastern part of Thailand, so you are right. It should read Tanaecia cocytus cocytus. Incedentally, the difference appears to be with the intensity of the underside markings, so it would not show up on the photos anyway! I believe that, in Malaysia, this species only reaches the far northern borders with Thailand, no further South.

I will not change the title of this thread, as It would confuse anyone reading these comments. I must, however, change my pre-publication webpage entries, damn it!

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