Islanded Endemics

[Trehopr1]

What is the other endemic species ?

[eurytides]

Joanae and polyxenes are not reliably separated visually. How many of those old specimens “identified” as joanae but look like polyxenes are actually joanae?

[livingplanet3]

What is the other endemic species ?

Udara blackburnii -

[Chuck]

Joanae and polyxenes are not reliably separated visually. How many of those old specimens “identified” as joanae but look like polyxenes are actually joanae?

Beats me. I got a polyxenes in KY that looked a bit like joanae. I'm not concerned about ranges, I've extended the known range of hundreds of taxa. This one I poured over, put it away, got it out again and again compared it to the publications and images, and finally gave up. It will be some student's problem some day. LOL. I have my own problems, which should be in your in email in box right now.

[Chuck]

Back up for one of my favorite subjects.

Most of today's taxa come from the island of Malaita, and all of it is from Solomon Islands. Sorry for all Solomons stuff, but it was at hand because, well I'll explain later.

Below: Polyura bicolor, endemic to Malaita Island



Below: Chilasa toboroi straatmani, the ssp endemic to Santa Isabel Island


Below: Graphium mendana aureofasciatum, the ssp endemic to Malaita Island



Below: Graphium hicaeton, endemic to Solomon Islands. One of my favorite butterflies



Below: Graphium codrus pisidice; the ssp is endemic to Malaita Island


Below: Delias schoenbergi isabellae, the ssp is endemic to Santa Isabel island


I was going through some papered material and found that I still have some papered Chilasa toboroi and the Buprestid Paracupta helopioides . You know how it is, that got me down a path of "I wonder if I have enough of these set..." and that turns into "maybe I'll take some quick photos" and then "wait, these don't look the same..." but at least here we are.

[martellat0]

Throwing my hat into the ring with this Papilo (Chilasa) osmana, a species which (if I recall correctly) is restricted to northeastern Mindanao as well as southern Leyte in the Philippines. These localities consist of adjacent islands (and lesser islets) which are separated by about 20 kilometers of water. I purchased this specimen some months ago from a dealer, as my collecting exploits have thus far only been limited to a few spots around my hometown of Cebu.



Along with the considerably rarer P. carolinensis, this swallowtail was described by Julian Jumalon - a local lepidopterist and artist - in the year 1967. He named P. carolinensis after the University of San Carlos in Cebu, where he was in charge of organizing collecting expeditions around the country on behalf of the university, as well as managing its entomological collection.

P. osmana was named after his son Osman, who followed in his father's footsteps as a lepidopterist, accompanying him on several expeditions. To this day, he manages his father's collection of Lepidoptera along with his sister Humaida.

As it happens, I am currently a student at USC (albeit in a field unrelated to entomology) and have since become friends with the Jumalon family. In fact, they were the ones who encouraged me to start collecting in the first place - just over two years ago - so acquiring this particular species felt somewhat satisfying, personally speaking. Perhaps someday, I will be able to add carolinensis to my collection as well.

[Chuck]

Throwing my hat into the ring with this Papilo (Chilasa) osmana, a species which (if I recall correctly) is restricted to northeastern Mindanao as well as southern Leyte in the Philippines. These localities consist of adjacent islands (and lesser islets) which are separated by about 20 kilometers of water. I purchased this specimen some months ago from a dealer, as my collecting exploits have thus far only been limited to a few spots around my hometown of Cebu.



Along with the considerably rarer P. carolinensis, this swallowtail was described by Julian Jumalon - a local lepidopterist and artist - in the year 1967. He named P. carolinensis after the University of San Carlos in Cebu, where he was in charge of organizing collecting expeditions around the country on behalf of the university, as well as managing its entomological collection.

P. osmana was named after his son Osman, who followed in his father's footsteps as a lepidopterist, accompanying him on several expeditions. To this day, he manages his father's collection of Lepidoptera along with his sister Humaida.

As it happens, I am currently a student at USC (albeit in a field unrelated to entomology) and have since become friends with the Jumalon family. In fact, they were the ones who encouraged me to start collecting in the first place - just over two years ago - so acquiring this particular species felt somewhat satisfying, personally speaking. Perhaps someday, I will be able to add carolinensis to my collection as well.

That’s great, thanks for sharing that. I’ll bet you have some fabulous smaller endemics on Cebu- don’t overlook them in favor of larger species.

[martellat0]

I’ll bet you have some fabulous smaller endemics on Cebu

Indeed we do! However, my collection is currently limited to the more common species. I have a few collecting spots located in urban and suburban areas, and have not yet had the opportunity to venture into our mountains in search of the really exciting stuff. Hopefully that will change soon.

For now, a cursory skim through Treadaway's 1995 checklist of Philippine butterflies reveals that I have a few other subspecies that I think are worth posting to this thread:


Euploea mulciber cebuensis, found only on Cebu.


Pachliopta kotzebuea bilara, found on Cebu and Bohol. Both specimens are female, with the bottom mounted verso.


Cyrestis maenalis cebuensis, found only on Cebu.


Athyma kasa parakasa, found on Cebu and Camotes.


Cepora aspasia tolmida, found on Cebu and Camotes. I don't normally collect specimens in bad condition like this, but since this was the first (and, as of writing, remains the only) specimen of this species I was able to catch, I decided to make an exception.

Note that the subspecific IDs I have provided above are only based on the distributions cited in Treadaway's checklist. It's possible that some of them are erroneous, though I believe I have correctly identified them to at least the species level.

Ref.: Treadaway, C. (1995). Checklist of the butterflies of the Philippine Islands (Lepidoptera: Rhopalocera). Nachrichten des Entomologischen Vereins Apollo, Suppl. 14: 7-118

[martellat0]

As for the larger, flashier stuff, here are two species that need no introduction:


Trogonoptera trojana


Troides plateni

The four specimens pictured here were produced from captive breeding on Palawan.