View Full Version : Poritia philota philota?
horace2264
05-Apr-2007, 08:18 PM
Met Sunny in CCA during my lunch time outing. Sunny was shooting a "Sumatran Gem" when I ran into him. However the butt took off soon later showing its bright bluish upperside as it departed.
After parting company, I went on to explore the trail alone and ran into a group of three "Sumatran Gem" several hundred metres away. With the butt in the viewfinder, I found its coloration a shade darker (see pic 1) than the previous specimen I saw in previous outings. The butts exhibited this habit of rapid wing opening/closing routine when they landed on a new perch (see pic 2). Checking C&P4, the uppersides actually matche those of Poritia philota philota rather than Poritia sumatrae sumatrae. Looks like another +1 for me.
Sunny, you should check whether the Sumatran Gem you shot is actually this other species.
Horace
richardlbong
05-Apr-2007, 08:26 PM
Congrats horace. Looks like you hit jackpot again.
Richard
Peacock Royal
05-Apr-2007, 08:39 PM
Good capture. Well dome.
Commander
05-Apr-2007, 09:21 PM
Great shots, Horace. Especially where you nailed the upperside as well. Yes, this is P. philota. A bit hard to separate the two species just by the undersides alone, but the upperside confirms it.
horace2264
05-Apr-2007, 09:36 PM
Thanks, Richard and Federick. Hit 200 mark with this +1. :gbounce:
Thanks, Khew for confirming the ID. It was a fruitful outing today with the fine and sunny weather enticing many species of butts to come out. Many Arhopala speces, most of which I cannot ID, are out in force. I am sure Sunny will agree.
Horace
Peacock Royal
05-Apr-2007, 10:23 PM
Congratulations that you have reached the 200 mark.
With your luck and your highly observant skills in the field, you can nail more rare species and even discorver new species. :cheers:
Silverstreak
05-Apr-2007, 10:52 PM
Horace,
Congrates on hitting the 200 marks with a rare butt!!:cheers:
Unfortunately , the one I shot is a Sumatran Gem ... I saw the upper wing .
Here is a comparison .... other than the difference in coloration ,there appears to be distinct differences on the under wing marking especially the hind wing termen area.
Butts activities in the CCA is picking up with lots of Flos and Arhopalas.
Commander
05-Apr-2007, 10:54 PM
Sunny, can do a close up zoom crop on the eyes?
Silverstreak
05-Apr-2007, 11:17 PM
Hmm appears that the eyes on the sumatran gems is green while the philota is grey...
Commander
05-Apr-2007, 11:23 PM
Yup... that's what I noticed....grey eyes. I remember the Sumatran Gems to have green eyes in most of my shots. :) But then again, I'm not sure if it's always consistently green. :hmmm:
horace2264
05-Apr-2007, 11:28 PM
Thanks, Federick and Sunny.
A good piece of information on the difference in the color of the eyes. We might be able to use it as a key to separate the two species in field shots.
Attached is a cropped pic on the area around the eye of the P. philota.
Horace
horace2264
07-Apr-2007, 04:44 PM
Went back to check the same spot in CCA for PPP, and was rewarded with the sighting of 1 male and 3 females (TBC) flying around. The male was too skittish for any shot, but the females (somewhat larger, much lighter shades of brown on the undersides, and mostly dark brown uppersides) were cooperative enough for a good session of photo taking (see attached pic).
As the uppersides of female Sumatran Gem are light purplish for most part, these females I encountered cannot be Sumatran Gem, and are very likely female PPP.
Horace
Silverstreak
07-Apr-2007, 05:54 PM
Other than the different color on the markings and the eyes ..... very difficult to discern any other differences....:sweat::sweat:
Silverstreak
07-Apr-2007, 06:46 PM
[QUOTE}
Khew and Horace,
Perhaps you both can check your photo archives on what I found on the two specimens that Horace posted.
There are some obvious difference in marking between Horace 's philota captures and those in the checklist archives on the forewing markings.
More photo specimen of the philota will be needed to establish this difference.
Commander
08-Apr-2007, 12:18 AM
Hmm... nothing mentioned about the eyes though. And after looking at all my shots of the Sumatran Gems, there were a few without the green eyes. :thinking:
C&P4's ID key is rather complex.
horace2264
08-Apr-2007, 12:55 AM
Hmm... nothing mentioned about the eyes though. And after looking at all my shots of the Sumatran Gems, there were a few without the green eyes. :thinking:
C&P4's ID key is rather complex.
May be some of your shots of SG without green eyes were PPP? One thing for certain is that a view of the uppersides will surely fix the ID.
BTW the uppersides of the philota females (TBC) I encountered have some orange patches against the dark brown ground color (seen as they opened and closed their wings, but I was not quick enough to shoot). This implies that they are -f. philota, and not -f. lugubris (without orange markings).
Horace
horace2264
08-Apr-2007, 01:40 AM
Attached is a cropped portion of pic for the PPP female (TBC) FW underside to further illustrate the difference pointed out by Sunny.
Horace
Silverstreak
11-Jun-2007, 05:26 PM
Update:
From the additional Sumatran Gems and Philotas I have captured on images and confirmed with upper wing sighting to ensure that they are of the respective species.
1 x sumatran gems and 3 x philota comform to the observation quoted below, posted here some time back.
Please help to verify the followings of your photos to see if they conform with these observations:
Poritia sumatrae sumatrae (Sumatran Gem)
#1 Eyes color are light green
#2 The first and second sets of chevron lower markings are convexed to the wing base
Poritia philota philota,
#1 Eyes are light grey.
#2 The first and second sets of chevron markings are does not convexed to the wing base.
Attached are 3 additional male Philota from MNT , SF , NSPL and a male Sumatran gems at the lower right from SF captured in the last 2 weeks
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