August 2012 Fraser's Hill

[Psyche]

Is this now fully accepted? I knew that there was great debate about this, but was not aware it had been resolved. C&P4 mentions this and intimates that it could be a separate sp. but retained it as a ssp. of I. pyrene.

In Malayan Nature Journal vol 58 Oct. 2006.
Eliot's explanation is that there are no intermediates, given some altitudinal overlap is inevitable, and there are no other known subspecies of I. pyrene in which the male is white.
Taxon alticola is endemic to peninsular Malaysia.

TL Seow

[Psyche]

Post 66. f.
Jamides talinga.
Forewing elpis group, postdiscal band broken at vein 6; hindwing sub-basal band broken.
The ID mark is the 2 white dashes/dots above the forewing cellend bar.

Post 67/m Pithauris marsena.
Post 67/o Prosotas pia pia. Note submarginal spots much faded.

Post 68. The colour is wrong for C. bernardus which is a steely greyish-brown.(as in the other pix.)

The colour is that of Charaxes harmodius martinus, which is a deep purple brown. They are almost identical on the underside except that the upper submarginal white spots in space 6 & 7 on the hindwing tend to be more prominent in this species.

TL Seow
PS. Since your Green Dragontail & Jewel Nawab are also overly blue, the excessive blue tone may have cause the Rajah to be purplish, in which case it is still the Tawny Rajah.

[The Plane]

Thanks Les and Dr Seow for your ID help.... means I missed the Tawny Rajah as I thought I had it already after shooting the Charaxes harmodius martinus on the 2nd day

Ooooo BLUE Dragontail!

Still think the name Blue Dragontail is more appropriate

Chng ,

Beautiful shots!

Thanks Sunny !

[Psyche]

I did some checking on this and it should be C. harmodius martinus after all.

Even if there is excessive blue tone, & if this removed it would not show the steely grey tone of C. bernardus.

Here are examples of C. harmodius this probably from Thailand.
In particular, note the shape of the hindwing submarginal markings.
http://www.insect-sale.com/photo/ins...s-martinus.jpg
Here is one from Java. You can see the hindwing upper white spots are variable. & smaller here.
http://www.fobi.web.id/fbi/d/32014-2...Baluran_IT.jpg

Your shot matches these well especially the submarginal markings in pic 1.

TL Seow

[Bluebottle]

Last batch of photos...

Lily bud flower


Sunrise


Ant


Morning dew

[The Plane]

Thanks again for checking, Dr Seow. And also for letting me know my shots has got a blue tint. I checked all my shots taken in this trip and indeed some of them has already got the blue tint in camera raw format, eg the Red Spot Jezebel I posted below. I wonder why

I did some checking on this and it should be C. harmodius martinus after all.

Even if there is excessive blue tone, & if this removed it would not show the steely grey tone of C. bernardus.

Here are examples of C. harmodius this probably from Thailand.
In particular, note the shape of the hindwing submarginal markings.
http://www.insect-sale.com/photo/ins...s-martinus.jpg
Here is one from Java. You can see the hindwing upper white spots are variable. & smaller here.
http://www.fobi.web.id/fbi/d/32014-2...Baluran_IT.jpg

Your shot matches these well especially the submarginal markings in pic 1.

TL Seow

[Painted Jezebel]

Here are examples of C. harmodius this probably from Thailand.

Interesting. I was not aware that C. harmodius was found in Thailand. Ek-Amnuay does not mention it in his 1st edition, nor is it on the list of species to be in the 2nd as yet unpublished edition. However, I see that Yutaka does show a specimen from Ranong labelled C. harmodius ssp.

Ranong is not that far from me, so I had better pay more attention to the specimens of C. bernadus crepax I see!

[Commander]

That submarginal whitish thin band on the forewing underside appears to be different in Chng's shot compared to those that Sunny and I shot of the Tawny Rajah.

I've taken the liberty of posting Lemon's shot for comparison as well - also shot elsewhere on Fraser's Hill over the same period.

[MinuteMaid]

That submarginal whitish thin band on the forewing underside appears to be different in Chng's shot compared to those that Sunny and I shot of the Tawny Rajah.

I've taken the liberty of posting Lemon's shot for comparison as well - also shot elsewhere on Fraser's Hill over the same period.

here's another shot of that same tawny rajah with different settings, without flash. was quite curious as to why this one had that black band marked so strongly on the hindwing..as well as the white edge on the forewing.



just curious, how come some tawny rajah's are steely grey while some are more orangey-brown. are all these also just variations?

[Silverstreak]

Here is another Tawny Rajah ( Charaxes bernardus crepax ) taken at same location as Chng's in Feb 2011