Arhopala trogon

[horace2264]

I last shot this species in 2009 along MNT, and have failed to encounter it again at the same location ever since. Today, I was pleasantly surprised when I ran into one in another part of the nature reserve, miles away from MNT.

[Peacock Royal]

Congrats. I have not seen one before:cry:

[Puffin]

Hi,
I believe I also saw one today. 22761. Am I right?

Cheers,
Yik

[horace2264]

Congrats. I have not seen one before:cry:
Thanks. :) It is only a matter of time you run into one.


Hi,
I believe I also saw one today. Am I right?
May be. A few spots are not there or misaligned, likely a result of aberration or birth defect.

[Puffin]

Oh. The forewing band looks very different from yours. Spots are very small.

Does anyone else have an opinion on the ID of this aberrant looking trogon?

thanks for advice,
yik

[Commander]

Yik's shot does not seem to have the purple wash that A. trogon​ normally has. :thinking:

[Psyche]

Yik's shot does not seem to have the purple wash that A. trogon​ normally has. :thinking:

According to the key & text of C&P4 , the underside is hair brown without a purple wash so this is definitely A. aurea, otherwise these two are near identical.

TL Seow:cheers:

[Puffin]

Yik's shot does not seem to have the purple wash that A. trogon​ normally has. :thinking:


My photo was taken without flash. Would the purple wash be obvious to the eye, or is the color only accentuated with flash? I looked at a friend's copy of Fleming, and the trogon there looked brown.

Yik

[Psyche]

My photo was taken without flash. Would the purple wash be obvious to the eye, or is the color only accentuated with flash? I looked at a friend's copy of Fleming, and the trogon there looked brown.

Yik

Oops here. It is A. trogon.
I have actually thought it was A. trogon much earlier when comparing the spots but got sidetracked with the purple wash feature later.
You raised a very pertinent point here.
Note without the flash the underside is quite purplebrown.

An important clue to the ID of A. trogon is that the two black spots in space 1a(tornal angle) & space 2 are quite large.
In A. aurea they are somewhat flattened.

The male A. aurea is also slightly purple-shaded, but without the strong glaze very apparent with flash in trogon.
http://www.butterflycircle.com/checklist/mugshots/Arhopala%20aurea/Centaur%20Oakblue%20-%20Benedict%20Tay.jpg
http://www.butterflycircle.org/lycaenidae/Arhopala-aurea-3.jpg
http://th05.deviantart.net/fs71/200H/i/2010/254/b/4/arhopala_trogon_120910_by_inckurei-d2yjr1q.jpg

Apart from the more prominent black spots the markings of A. trogon tend to be broader.
http://www.butterflycircle.com/checklist/mugshots/Arhopala%20trogon/arhopala%20trogon%20-%20Khew.jpg

TL Seow:cheers:

[Puffin]

Thanks Dr Seow. Now that you mentioned it, the relative prominence of the black spots suddenly becomes quite obvious!

Yik

[atronox]

Hi,
I believe I also saw one today. 22761. Am I right?

Cheers,
Yik

This cannot be trogon. I'm very certain this should be Arhopala corinda. The whitish area at the fw dorsum and the strongly contrasting basal dark scaling are diagnostic (in trogon the dark scales are not so apparent).

This specimen is slightly aberrant but still the spots forming the post-discal band on the forewing and spots 6 and 7 on the hindwing are distinctive because they are more rounded than in pretty much all examples of aurea and trogon. In particular, spots 6 and 7 on the hindwing are much larger and rounder than the one in space 5 (the shape difference is quite noticeable). In aurea and trogon there is no discernible shape difference between these spots and they are always very rectangular.

There are also subtle differences in wing shape that rule out aurea/trogon.

I'd be glad if someone with C&P4 at hand can verify this :)

[Psyche]

I think you got it right here.
The markings are as for A. corinda.
My main concern is that the marginal spot in space 2 is large & rounded much as in A. trogon, whereas in A. corinda it tends to be somewhat flattened.


TL Seow: Cheers.

[atronox]

I think you got it right here.
The markings are as for A. corinda.
My main concern is that the marginal spot in space 2 is large & rounded much as in A. trogon, whereas in A. corinda it tends to be somewhat flattened.


TL Seow: Cheers.

Thanks, Dr Seow. That spot is troubling but i decided it had to be corinda because all the other features were quite consistent. There are very few images of ssp. acestes for comparison

Of course the surest way to tell is by observing the dorsal as it flies. If this is indeed corinda, it would have been be a deep blue

[Banded Yeoman]

I can see some greenish scales showing through on the upperside though. We'll.. Whatever colour it is, it's quite bright and A. corinda won't show that. I believe it might be an aberration of A. trogon

[atronox]

I can see some greenish scales showing through on the upperside though. We'll.. Whatever colour it is, it's quite bright and A. corinda won't show that. I believe it might be an aberration of A. trogon

Yeah, we'll wait for a more definitive sighting. It's probably premature to record this as corinda

[Banded Yeoman]

Arhopala corinda is a fair bit larger than A. trogon. With the dusky upperside, it would be unmistakable in the field.