Grey Pansy at PRP

[m00nman26]

Went for a short reccee to PRP this morning to check out the butterfly activities.
The spice garden seem to be under construction and although there are still plants, the place is rather 'dead' without much activities
The mangrove swamp boardwalk was a different story altogether, with lots of activities.
Just a short 45 mins, i saw plenty of knights, some king crows, painted jezebel, great eggflies, and to my surprise, a grey pansy which I had not observed it to be there before.

[Commander]

Nice bugger you shot there. Perhaps you should organise an outing at PRP for the newbies.

Shoot all the Knights that you can see. I believe that the first shot of Terry's series is the subspecies malayana with the reddish submarginal band on the hindwings, instead of the bluish marking of subspecies parkeri. Although there are some blue markings, they are less pronounced than in the usual ssp parkeri. Maybe the two subspecies are interbreeding and coming up with variants in between malayana and parkeri.

[m00nman26]

yeap i also noticed terry's shot had only very faint purple markings...
when 2 species interbreed will there be a new species i wonder..

[Cruiser]

Excellent shot of the Grey pansy you have got here

[Peacock Royal]

Agree, this is a very nice shot.

[Snowywolf]

yeap i also noticed terry's shot had only very faint purple markings...
when 2 species interbreed will there be a new species i wonder..

i was told that butterflies don't interbreed?
can someone clear up my doubt please?
thanks

[Painted Jezebel]

Jayne, I'm likely only to confuse you further, but lets have a go!

Generally, two different species will not interbreed. However, as with all rules, there are some exceptions. This is particularly the case with the Papilionidae, though most successful interbreeding has been done with very closely related species, and then done by artificial pairing (not in the wild). Even so, on very, very rare occasions, successful mating between two related species does occur in the wild, but usually these hybrids are infertile.

With regards to James's question, I think he should have said subspecies, not species, in this case (relating to the two ssp. of Lebadea martha). It is possible for two subspecies to pair, and often the results will be an intermediate form. This is well shown by Hypolimnas bolina, where, when the two ssp. (H. b. bolina and H. b. jacintha) are present in the same location, we often see intermediates.

A pairing of two ssp. will not result in a new species.

Hope this helps!!!

Oops, sorry Jayne, I've just read you have a headache. Sorry to make it worse!

[Snowywolf]

Hi Les,

thank you so much for helping to answer my query..
it's indeed insightful..

=0)
hehe..

[Common Mime]

Nice shot of this perstine specimen!

[Leopard Lacewing]

Nice shot of Grey Pansy! Great work!

Cheers!