Skipper ID request - Penang Island - October 23, 2023

[SL Liew]

Hi Dr Seow,
Request your help to id these two skippers found near entrance of Moon Gate hiking trail, next to Penang Botanic Gardens. Thank you.

#1
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/188641972

#2
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/188641971

[Psyche]

1. Pseudocoladenia dan.
https://yutaka.it-n.jp/hes/90640010.html


2. Caltoris bromus.
Prominent pale area on antennae; FW & HW more uniform brown.
https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/322340462/large.jpg

Similar bit HW dark chocolate.
C. cahira.
https://content.eol.org/data/media/9e/4f/ee/854.taieol_nid_47137.jpg


tL Seow: Cheers.

[SL Liew]

Thank you Dr. Seow.

[SL Liew]

Update:
Dr.Seow, As #2 was a lifer for me, I requested from HK iNat butterfly identifiers to add their id confirmation for C.bromus to make it Research Grade.
To my surprise, one of them id it as C.cahira. I checked his/her observations in HK, he/she has 28 iNat observations of C.cahira and 20 observations of C.bromus.
I viewed the photos and noticed that all the C.cahira uploaded did not have hindwing spots and all the C.bromus have hindwing spots. Not sure if they are all id correctly or if there is variation between gender or within species or the species seen in HK, a bit different from Penang.
What do you think? Possible that #2 is C.cahira instead? Thanks. SL Liew

[Psyche]

Update:
Dr.Seow, As #2 was a lifer for me, I requested from HK iNat butterfly identifiers to add their id confirmation for C.bromus to make it Research Grade.
To my surprise, one of them id it as C.cahira. I checked his/her observations in HK, he/she has 28 iNat observations of C.cahira and 20 observations of C.bromus.
I viewed the photos and noticed that all the C.cahira uploaded did not have hindwing spots and all the C.bromus have hindwing spots. Not sure if they are all id correctly or if there is variation between gender or within species or the species seen in HK, a bit different from Penang.
What do you think? Possible that #2 is C.cahira instead? Thanks. SL Liew

Yes. It is possible to be Caltoris cahira.

C.bromus UnH dark brown, overlaid with ochreous scales. Female may have 1- 2 HW spots.
Males.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/149217007
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/184641820
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/38212403
Female.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/13664032
Examples from Taiwan.
https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2813/9509360804_aec2551d54_b.jpg
https://c1.staticflickr.com/7/6021/6191990971_d7f055cc62_z.jpg
http://woxiong.butterfly-photo.com/displayimage.php?pid=1261


Caltoris cahira.UnH dark brown overlaid with very dark almost chocolate scales.
Male P. Malaysia.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gancw1/21680122591
Female .singapore.
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7l1dr3n_gKc/UNkf7-O6cQI/AAAAAAAAIJg/leZVbtGOi8k/s1600/DFP+2252+Caltoris+bromus.jpg

My main doubt is that the FW is normally paler than the HW in C. cahira.
The resolution is also not high enough to see if the overlaid scalings are very dark or just ochreous.

C cahira is considered very rare.


TLSeow: Cheers.

C. cahira in Hong Kong. Note much darker HW..
https://156cfyphotography.blogspot.com/2018/07/dark-swift-caltoris-cahira.html

[SL Liew]

Again thanks Dr.Seow for your elaboration.