Fraser's Hill August 2010

[Commander]

I attach a photo of H. porus, which is common up here. This should show that it is very different from what you shot. Ek-Amnuay shows the underside of H. hauxwelli, it fits nicely.

SK, you have much more experience with Malay skippers than me (LC, I know you skip skippers ), what do you think?

It does match H. hauxwelli, doesn't it? Let me process another shot that I took of this skipper at the same location as Federick. Maybe with more shots, we can nail down the ID better.

Another +1 for me - Abisara neophron chelina (TBC)

Yup. That's the only Abisara that looks like that.

[Commander]

And four shots of the hardworking BC members, shooting day and night!

[Commander]

Here you go, Les. Two shots of the same butterfly when it was basking in the sun, and then puddling.

[Painted Jezebel]

Here you go, Les. Two shots of the same butterfly when it was basking in the sun, and then puddling.

Thank you for these further photos. The upperside shot has forced me to rethink, there do not appear to be any cell spots on the forewing, which rules out H. hauxwelli . This surprised me as the underside seemed perfect. At least, the presence of the brand confirms I have the right genus!

Fortunately, there are only a couple of species lacking these spots. As the spots in 2 & 3 appear to be only half overlapping, I would hazzard a suggestion that it could be H. clara, but then, the underside as shown in C&P4 differs markedly!

I am now seriously confused, and I hate having anything unidentified!

[Commander]

I know that feeling, Les. That's why I usually keep quiet when asked about skippers, as I know that there are too few photos of specimens available for a comprehensive comparison. A few shots in C&P4 and Pisuth would not give me much confidence to ID these, as the variability of the physical markings of skippers appear to be even higher than those of the other families.

"Fortunately" for us in Singapore, we don't have too many skippers to contend with. I have specimens from the Isma, Pyroneura, Potanthus, Telicota, Polytremis and Pelopidas genera from Malaysia that I would go crazy trying to ID. One of C&P4's 'shortcomings' is that it doesn't show all male/female/upperside/underside photos and we could often be fooled into ID'ed a species without the benefit of seeing other shots of the lookalike species.

For those of you with C&P4, just take a look at the series of species under Pyroneura (or what you know from a single species in Singapore called the Yellow Veined Lancer). For a long time, I was hoping that we have other species. But then again, I would have had to kill quite a lot of Yellow Veined Lancers that I come across to be able to have a comparison of the different specimens.

[butterfly_effect]

Everybody's got such nice piccies! Congratulations!

[Silverstreak]

Polyura delphis concha - Jewel Nawab


ISO200 1/300s F/9 , Fill-Flash, Resting on Ground.



Pathysa agetes iponus - The FourBar Swallowtail


ISO1000 1/300s F/13 , Fill-Flashed , Handheld

[Leopard Lacewing]

Great shots, Sunny!

Cheers!

[moloch]

Good stuff. Both the Nawab and Swallowtail are really special butterflies.

We have a pretty relative of the Nawab here called a Tailed Emperor. It is not as nicely coloured as the Jewel Nawab but still quite nice. Unfortunately, I have never seen them puddle in this area. Normally, I just see them flashing by and usually high overhead. I will see if I can take some photos this next warm season.

Regards,
David

[Silverstreak]

Pithecops corvus corvus (Forest Quaker)



ISO640 1/250 F/8 , Fill-flashed , Handheld

Cheers!