A recent paper on Butterfly Conservation in Singapore

[horace2264]

Came across this paper "Importance of Reserves, Fragments and Parks for Butterfly Conservation in a tropical urban landscape" by Lian Pin Koh and Navjot S. Sodhi in Ecological Applications, vol. 14 no. 6, 2004, pp. 1695-1708. A pdf file can be found here (http://lianpinkoh.com/reprints/Koh_&_Sodhi_Ecol_App_14_1695.pdf).

In that paper, a reference was made to a Khew and Steven's joint paper in 1997.

Khew, are you aware of this paper?
It seems to imply on page 1705 that the host plant Gironniera subaequalis is mentioned in that 1997 paper. :thinking:

[Commander]

Ah... Lian Pin, the chap that I blasted for using my photos without permission on his NUS website some time back. :bsmile: Anyway, yes, he's been writing papers and so on, and left to do his PhD in the US. Not sure if he's back already.

Yes, reference to G. subaequalis has been made since the mid 90's when I was with the little group then known as BWR group with Steven Neo and the two chaps now with BIG. Steven and I didn't question the validity of that ID then, as we would have been none the wiser, given that our focus was more on butterflies than the IDs of plants. I also recall that Steven also had some reference to the plant in his Science Centre book. He featured the Purple Duke's life history as an example in his book.

Even in Lian Pin's paper, you will notice that the status of some of the species have changed (some referred to as "rare" are now not so) and in particular the Autumn Leaf was classified as "urban avoider" which is not so true these days.

The paper that Steven and I co-wrote in 1997 (and published in 1999) is also outdated in terms of data. Hence it is important that any opportunities to write scientific papers on butterfly fauna in Singapore should be seriously considered, as the evolution of many species is very time-dependent.

For example, during the time when we wrote the paper, there were no Leopard Lacewings or Tawny Costers. And at that time, the Great Eggfly was common - even found several in my own home's garden at times. Today, the Jacintha Eggfly seems to have taken over most of Singapore and I would consider the Great Eggfly heading towards the "moderately rare" status soon. :thinking:

[horace2264]

Oh, interesting bit on the author. :)
Wonder who conducted those surveys for him?

From the web, Lian Pin is currently a post-doc at ETH-Zurich. See this link (http://www.ecology.ethz.ch/people/pstdocs/lian) for details.

We need to work more on the ID of that plant which we have been calling G. subaequalis all this time. May be Liyana can help us with it? :thinking:

[Commander]

Oh, interesting bit on the author. :)
Wonder who conducted those surveys for him?

That episode ended quite nicely, as he magnanimously apologised for using photos without permission. So the matter ended amicably. :) I think a group of research students who were doing their AE in the Dept of Biological Sciences, NUS, helped him as well. I believe he did quite a bit of field work himself too.



We need to work more on the ID of that plant which we have been calling G. subaequalis all this time. May be Liyana can help us with it? :thinking:

Liyana, how? Can help us?

[Branded Imperial]

That episode ended quite nicely, as he magnanimously apologised for using photos without permission. So the matter ended amicably. :) I think a group of research students who were doing their AE in the Dept of Biological Sciences, NUS, helped him as well. I believe he did quite a bit of field work himself too.




Liyana, how? Can help us?

Been busy with work this week. Just read this thread ;P

Yes I can help with it.

[Commander]

I believe we can close this issue for now, with a few experts independently identifying the host plant for the Grey Sailor and Purple Duke as Gironniera nervosa instead of Gironniera subaequalis as we had incorrectly identified in the past.