One difference between the male Cephrenes acalle and Cephrenes trichopepla

[horace2264]

As promised in my reply to Henry's comment on the BC blog LH article on C. acalle, here is a a comparison pic (animated gif) of the male C. acalle (bottom) and C. trichopepla (top). Besides the difference in color and contrast of the HW discal patch against the ground colour, one consistent difference I observed is in the lowest spot of the discal path (highlighted with a white outline for both specimens).

For C. trichopepla, this spot is smaller and has "concave" black outline (the same feature is found in some Telicota spp.) whereas for C. acalle, this spot is bigger and has "pointed" forward outline.

Note that this is just my observation, and this difference has not been documented as an ID key for either species.

[Commander]

Dunno about anyone else, but I can't see the picture.

[Painted Jezebel]

Dunno about anyone else, but I can't see the picture.

Same here, but then I thought it was my bronze-age computer!

[henrykoh]

me see no pic too but must thank Horace nevertheless and I know the pic is coming

[horace2264]

Strange. The image was there when I checked after making the post last night.
It seems that Google doc had made some changes to their way of sharing documents. I have just switched to using Photobucket to store the animated gif and now it should be viewable in post #1.

[henrykoh]

Thanks Horace. The one i shot in my estate is indeed a C. trichopepla

[horace2264]

Thanks Horace. The one i shot in my estate is indeed a C. trichopepla

You are welcome, Henry.
It seems like C. trichopepla is more widely distributed than we earlier thought. I remember you stay close to the LSR area, right? May be I should take a look there one of these days.

[Leopard Lacewing]

I can see the pictures (both on IE and Firefox) with blinking mark... Good work, Horace.

Cheers!

[Commander]

Thanks for resolving the missing pic, Horace.

Yes, I have a specimen from LSR, at the old Silverline base. Sunny and I were remarking at the large sized "Telicota" at that time after we shot an exceptionally large specimen.

After we discovered C. trichopepla and comparing the specimens that you bred, and those from TBHP, Semakau, Pasir Ris and LSR, yes, all these were C. trichopepla after all. Oh yes, and one more from Bishan Park Herb Garden too!

As their cats feed on the commonly found Cocos nucifera aka Coconut, we can expect these buggers to be very widespread. The problem is, that ID'ing them and distinguishing them from the 3 Telicota (and I suspect there may be more than 3), will be not so easy in the field. Especially when we consider the females of the species as well, which are very similar looking.

[Painted Jezebel]

Thanks for the pics, Horace. Just checked my C. aculle file, in case a C. trichopepla was hiding in there. No luck!