Samui - 27 Dec 11

With yesterday non-stop rain all day, I had to take advantage of dry weather this morning, though there was light cloud cover. I stayed in the secondary vegetation next to my house.

1) Pareronia anais anais female f. lutea. I've been wanting a decent photo of this form a long time.

Up until now, the only Arhopala species I had ever seen in this location was A. centaurus. Today I found two more.
2) I am sure this must be Arhopala aida aida. I had only seen this species previously in or near mature woodland, we have no woodland within reasonable distance.
3) No spot in cell 11 (line 101), so I get lost again when using the key at line 122. Help!

Congratulations for the Pareronia anais anais!! It's a beauty

The Arhopala you got looks like this one?:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7149/6...a3b0408bf5.jpg
Arhopala sp.

Many last days at margin of the forests.

I have assumed 2 to be a member of the alea subgroup but just cannot get the combination of features to match.

After scrutinizing all the undersides, I think I have made an important discovery.
If the postdiscal spot in space 4 is dislocated and out of alignment with the spot in space 5 above and the spot in space 3 below, it is always a member of the alitaeus group.(Holds true for all undersides seen.)
This means the spot in space 11 can be obsolete in some examples of the alitaeus group.
Following this line, 2 should be A. elopura.

Antonio's pic is typical alitaeus member & should be A. ariana.

TL Seow:cheers:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Psyche

This means the spot in space 11 can be obsolete in some examples of the alitaeus group.

TL Seow:cheers:

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This is something I had been wondering about for a long time. The trouble was that the spot in 11 is mentioned on every occasion, as THE distictive feature.

Certainly, if I disregarded the lack of the spot, everything else looked alitaeus group like.

Thank you.

With spots there is always the possibility they may be missing in some individuals. Horace had bred alitaeus in which some spots are obsolete.

In the alitaeus group, all of them have the spot in space 4 dislocated and jutting outwards from the narrow main band.
This gives it a very distinctive appearance.
I have compared the forewing postdiscal bands of all members of the cleander group (including alea subgroup) and none have the same appearance.

Unless some new facts emerge, I think this is the most likely explanation.
The upperside indicates a female, but I find the female Arhopala often have very variable borders.

TL Seow:cheers:

PS. I did a comparison with Antonio's A. elopura, and all the important spots, the forewing band & the poor contrast match accurately.
Moreover, in your pic , a small dot is present at the costa in space 11, & represent a vestigial spot.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/angiud/6014883338/
I am fairly confident the ID is correct.