Skipper ID exercise

[Commander]

Thanks, Seow. Your analysis got me excited for awhile, as I earlier had my doubts as to whether this was H. ormenes or H. zema. I never considered H. insignis and that prompted me to check several books after you suggested it. Furthermore, the Butterflies of Thailand had H. ormenes as having no white discal band, making me even more confused! (I believe it's probably a mistake that Pisuth will correct in his forthcoming 2nd edition).

Khew, did you get to see the underside of the skipper when you shot it in 2007? Any white discal band?

Yes, the white discal band is quite distinct as can be seen in the series of sequence shots. Thanks for highlighting it. What got me confused was when I referred to Butterflies of Thailand, and the pictures there show H. ormenes without any discal band.

After checking various references, I'm back to Halpe ormenes, unfortunately, so no X'mas present for us.

Here are a series of shots that I took of this newly eclosed individual, and a selection of some of the shots in a larger format.

It's always a challenge to ID from field shots, and as Seow has pointed out, if you have some indication of the size, that sometimes helps. But if you have upperside/underside shots, then we may have a higher confidence of ID'ing it correctly.

I was later able to breed two caterpillars from the same location that I shot this individual, and the cats were still consistent with reference material of H. ormenes. Unfortunately, the host plant, a type of bamboo with scalloped trunks, was wiped out and is no longer found in that location.