Tanaecia godarti puloa?

[Commander]

Seow, is this the elusive ssp puloa?

http://butterflycircle.org/B-butterfly.JPG

[Painted Jezebel]

Wow, Congratulations, Khew!! It certainly does not look like any female of ssp. asoka that I have seen. Whether it is ssp. puloa or not, I can not say as I have never seen any pictures of that ssp. The other alternative is that it may be another ssp. and have come across from Sumatra or elswhere, if the species occurs there!

Whatever it is, a great find.

[Psyche]

Wow! It is certainly the female of Tanaecia godartii puloa.:gbounce::jumjoy:
Where did you shot it?

It was only recorded from Sentosa Island (aka Pulau Belakang Mati).
I have thought all the years of developments on the island have doomed this species.

Generally the cocytus group are now placed in the Genus Cynitia.

(puloa = Latinised from pulo, a variant of the Malay word pulau for island.)

TL Seow:cheers:

[Commander]

Haha... thanks for the excitement. But this wasn't taken in Singapore. It was taken on a survey of a little group of islands slightly further south beyond Singapore's boundaries (not too many km south of Sentosa). We can't even see those islets on Google maps! It's a 45 minute ferry ride towards Batam island, and then on a small boat (because the ferries are too big to land on those islands). Interesting butterflies there, and we even encountered I. leuconoe chersonesia. Pity the fella was flying around and didn't stop for a photo. :p

[Painted Jezebel]

Fascinating. This makes it more important than ever that I visit some of the remoter Islands in my archipelago. I have an invitation to visit and survey one after my return from Kaeng Krachan NP, and provide the owner with a detailed list of species found there. It is a private undeveloped island with a single small resort on it, used by divers, and a lot of virgin forest:thumbsup:.

Shame the pulao was not inside your boundaries!:cry: There could still be hope that it may be found in some of remoter parts of CCA. Were those Islands officially part of Malaysia or Indonesia then?

[Commander]

Shame the pulao was not inside your boundaries!:cry: There could still be hope that it may be found in some of remoter parts of CCA. Were those Islands officially part of Malaysia or Indonesia then?

It's actually within flying distance from Sentosa in Singapore (as Seow mentioned. It was called Pulau Blakang Mati during the time Corbet & Pendlebury wrote about that subspecies flying there). On those Indonesian islands, the King Crow, Mangrove Tree Nymph and even our common Tawny Coster were found there! The reason why a group of biodiversity surveyors were there, was that the developers are trying to do an eco-resort that "respects" the biodiversity of the islets. It's a very small group of two islands that you could walk around in 20 minutes! But it had a nice patch of forest, and a small mangrove area. Interestingly, called Funtasy Island. For those Singaporeans who visit the Cruise Centre at Harbour Front (near VivoCity) a model of the proposed development by the Indonesian developer is displayed there.

The islands are not accessible except with the developer's permission, and though we had to bring our passports along, we were given special treatment and brought to the island without having to queue up at the immigration counters.

[Psyche]

A pity. Still Eilot opined that the colony in Sentosa Island most probably came from the Riau islands.
It may still survive on Sentosa or those small islands just south.
In the Klang valley it seem to be more often seen than iapis.
In Bukit Gasing PJ, which is covered with secondary growth forest( It is an old rubber holding), only 2 barons are found, T. godartii & E. monina.
So its hostplant is also probably some wasteland species.

TL Seow:cheers:

[Commander]

Given the massive extent of development in Sentosa, including the Resorts World (more popularly known as our casino) and the number of tourists hitting the island annually, I am not too optimistic. The Tanaecia cats probably feed on some non-descript or unremarkable forest plants. Horsfield's Barons feed on the common Melastoma.

T. godartii is also found up north Johor in Bunker trail at times, and I've got some records from that location. But that's ssp asoka.

The Indonesian islands that I went to, had large areas of undisturbed growth and pockets of mangrove swamps. Each islet is probably about only 1/4 the size of our Pulau Ubin. I think the key is the flora that exists on the remaining southern islands within Singapore's boundaries. Islands like Pulau Seringat, St John's island, Sisters Island and so on, may still have to potential of supporting this subspecies. So far, my isolated visits to these islands have yielded no sightings of this species.

[Psyche]

It looks like Tanaecia (or rather Cynitia) godartii puloa is alive & well in Singapore.

In looking for Caltoris I came across one of Federick's blog 18 Jan 2009 Pulau Semakau,which shows a pic of a female .

This shows the the discrete FW spots , the pale marginal bands; the small arrowhead marks on the HW.
The Y-band is more deeply notched but is likely an insular variation.
As stated in the text of C&P4, it lacks the series of small discal spots just to the inside of the pale bands in ssp asoka.
http://peacockroyal.blogspot.com/2009_01_01_archive.html
20584

As a precaution I have cross-checked all the possibilities with Yutaka.
It is closest to the underside of ssp. asoka.
http://yutaka.it-n.jp/lim2/721010010.html

TL Seow:cheers:

[horace2264]

It looks like Tanaecia (or rather Cynitia) godartii puloa is alive & well in Singapore.


Wow, that is certainly good news. :gbounce:
Thanks, Dr Seow for spotting this archived shot, and congrats to Federick for nailing yet another one! :cheers:

[Cruiser]

Congrats to Federick :thumbsup:

[Psyche]

Before we start celebrating, it is necessary to rule out an aberrant female E. aconthea.
The FW Y-mark is too similar to that of aconthea.

TL Seow:cheers:

[Psyche]

Khew's excellent article here shows the wide variation of the female of the local Euthalia aconthea.
Although there is no match, an element of doubt still exist unfortunately.
http://butterflycircle.blogspot.com/2011/04/observation-notes-on-variability-of.html

TL Seow:cheers: