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Thanks Seow. I have removed the worn specimen from my site. I also recently shot an ochreous brown coloured Matapa with orangey hindwing cilia. So is the main distinction between M. aria and M. druna the ochreous colouring of M. aria or is it still better to distinguish based on the cilia? I have shots (one on the page linked above) that I think are M. aria because there is no contrast in cilia but the base colour is quite dark brown.
To reiterate, the differences between the two are:
1 The forewing of male druna is sharper while that of aria is broader & rounder.
Perspective distortion in photography renders this very hard to judge.
2. The ground colour of druna is a deeper & darker brown. In aria it is ochreous brown, yellower in the female.
Again in photography there is a myriad of shades of colour, due to different lighting conditions & settings.
3. The hindwing cilia of druna is orange-yellow while that of aria is greyish-yellow.
Here is a definitive series of pics of Matapa aria. Notice that whatever the colour of the butterfly or state of wear, there is no/or little contrast between the forewing and hindwing cilia.
http://ifoundbutterflies.org/301-matapa/matapa-aria-dp1
Thus a strong contrast of colour of the forewing & hindwing cilia is indicative that the skipper in question is M. druna.
TL Seow:cheers: