Common English Name

[kishendas]

I have seen people using "White-tipped Skipper" for Erionata hiraca in ButterflyCircle.
Does any of you know what is the source for this English name and how it was decided ?

Kishen Das

[Archduke]

Hi Kishen Das,

Here is a blog article (http://butterflycircle.blogspot.sg/2010/10/origin-of-some-common-names-of.html) that talk about the common names of butterflies.

Cheers,
Mark

[Commander]

Mark, that article is totally unrelated to Kishen's question. ;P

[Commander]

Kishen, just to get back to your point, the name first originated in the Butterflies of Thailand Edition 1 2006 by Pisuth Ek-Amnuay and subsequently also in Edition 2. Note that Dr Pisuth took it upon himself to give a common English name to every butterfly that exists in Thailand. Not every one of the name makes sense, but that is his prerogative.

I subsequently used the same name as Pisuth in my own book in 2010, as I see no harm in adopting a name that made sense. In Corbet & Pendlebury's Butterflies of the Malay Peninsula Edition 4 on page 374, the author mentioned "...the male has a distinct whitened apical patch on the forewing above." Hence the common English name at least gave some reference to the actual physical appearance of the butterfly that is quite distinctive.

I know of no other sources that coined the name before Dr Pisuth did.

There is a general agreement amongst the authors of the books in SouthEast Asia, and I do see quite a bit of variation of the names across different countries - the debate over whether the Neptis being called a Sailor or a Sailer being one of them. :)