Another Potanthus

[Commander]

Seow, what do you reckon this fellow is? Hindwing no blackened veins across the orange band. The hindwing cilia appears to be checkered too.

[Commander]

This one was taken some years back, with distinctly checkered (alt black and orange) fore and hindwing cilia.

[Commander]

Another series of a same pristine individual that I was shooting for quite a while. It appeared to be a newly-eclosed specimen, first stopping on a Melastoma leaf with its wings closed upright, then slowly opening to show its upperwing, and then fully opened to the skipper fashion. Then it took off to some flowers to feed. Quite distinctive checkered hindwing cilia on this individual.

[Psyche]

The first one should be P. confucius.
The hindwing band is joined by a spot in space 6 to the bigger spot in space 7. There are dark spots along the margins of the bands.
Only 3 species have this pattern namely P. trachala, P. confucius, & P. pava.
The outer margin of the subapical spots in P. trachala are strongly concaved.
A pity the other spots are not visible.

The 2nd is the same as the suspected P. ganda.
The veins across the hindwing band are very lightly darkened.
The periphery of the hindwing of the hindwing does not have the veins darkened as in omaha.
A spot is present in space 6 but is rather like an extension of the band, quite unlike the above. Probably a variable trait.
The abdomen is long though shorter than that in the other thread.

TL Seow:cheers:

[Psyche]

This now gets really confusing.
Your 3rd is the one that is suspected to be P. mingo.
The veins are not darkened; there are dark smudges; there is a big spot in space 6, but this sit on top of the spot in space 5, and not midway as in trachala or confucius.
The upperside have the veins faintly darkened on the hindwing.
So this is either P. mingo or P. ganda.
The upperside of mingo is supposed to be yellow while that of ganda is orange-yellow.
Also mingo is rare while ganda is common.
The underside dark smudges suggest mingo, but this could be variable.

No. 2 , if I dont look closely at it also looks like a variant of omaha.

Will need to carefully go through the whole lot again.

TL Seow:cheers:

[Psyche]

Have compared skipper no 2 with the pics of the long abdomen "P. ganda"male & female,and with images of P/ omaha on the checklist.

No 2 is [I][Potanthus omaha/I].
The intervening space between the 3 subapical spots and the costo-cellular orange patch is dark/blackened in "P. ganda" but not in P. omaha.

This individual have the veins not so distinctly darkened than the norm, but the appearance is typical enough.
Viewing at it too closely becomes confusing.

If we accept that the long abdomen form is ganda(I have seen the upperside and it is similar to no. 3),then No. 3 has to be mingo .
There does not seem to be any other possibility.

TL Seow:cheers:

[Psyche]

I did a search for Potanthus and came out with some old pics by Sunny.

This one can only be keyed down to either mingo or ganda based only on the upperside.
http://media.photobucket.com/image/potanthus/skyflash/Butterflies%20-%20Singapore/2006/CENTRAL/DSC_1819_D200_UFRaw9_sz-641.jpg?o=53

Here is positive proof of Potanthus juno.
Underside subapical spot in space 8 half the width of that in spaces 6 & 7.
On the upperside this spot is practically obsolete, leaving only 2 subapical spots.
http://media.photobucket.com/image/potanthus/skyflash/Butterflies%20-%20Singapore/2005/USR/DSC_9367_UFRaw_sz-640_USM.jpg?o=39

The 3rd is a gem. This looks like a Telicota but the 3 distinct subapical spots and the long thin 3rd segment of the palpus seen at the head indicates it is Potanthus.
This is Potanthus pamela , the only Potanthus here in which the big spot in space 7 on the underside hindwing is missing.
http://media.photobucket.com/image/potanthus/skyflash/Butterflies%20-%20Singapore/2005/CENTRAL/DSC_7301_crop-3MP_sz-600_LVL_USM.jpg?o=45

TL Seow:cheers: