Rare Delias butterflies

[mokky]

OK, Adam, I understand the situation. Thank you for your information.

I would like to check remaining boxes which Ting had made during his numerous adventures in the near future.

Thank you Adam for your link.

Ting was truly a great butterfly/insect collector! His materials include numerous new and interesting species. I noticed some of the family (Papilionidae) or group (for example Zephyrus Hairstreaks of Lycaenidae) are missing in the webpage. If it is possible, I would like to check all.

Ting gave all of his Papilionidae collection to me several years before he passed, so there are no boxes of Papilionidae. There are actually many more boxes that do not appear on the website, mostly containing specimens Ting collected in India, Nepal, Burmaand some from other countries. There are also a number of boxes of mixed butterflies and at least one full of green Zephyrus group specimens, which I guess are Chrysozephyrus.

Adam.

[Trehopr1]

I remember quite well some of the outstanding examples of Delias which Nomad posted on the other website. He ran across some pretty exclusive species and all were VERY well set.

His narratives about each species were fascinating.

I miss his participation and insights....

[mokky]

Thank you for sharing many rare and beautiful Delias species. Several species found in Solomon Islands are quite attractive. But it is hard to get the chance to access their habitat. One of my senior colleagues is a lucky person to visit Bismark Islands. He collected messalina, shunichii, salvini, lytaea, bagoe, narses, madetes and totila. He said collecting these species are extremely difficult because it needs to stay high up on the tree for hours.

[daveuk]

Wow Dave,

You really "reeled-in" some VERY colorful species of these. They are phenomenal in their splashes of yellows and reds mixed with browns and whites.

I don't have any Delias myself and I have only run across a smattering of them in collections here of which I've only encountered the common ones. Seems like the best ones are rare or hard to obtain.

Seeing these makes it easy to understand why collecting them could become infectious !

Thank You Trehopr
I have picked up a few species over time & managed to collect a couple of Australian species myself on a visit there which was fun. Probably the best private collection of Delias I ever saw was in the U.S A. belonging to the late Danny Burke. It was truly jaw dropping.

[daveuk]

Delias discus. Two males.Papua New Guinea
Delias arfakensis. Two males & a female. West Papua
Delias neagra. Two males. West Papua

[daveuk]

Delias klossi. Two males. Papua New Guinea
Delias aruna seriata. Three males & a female. Bacan
Delias splendida. Pair from Timor.

[Chuck]

A lot of Solomons elevations remain unexplored. The volcanic top of Rendova hasn’t been. JT went up Kolombangara, and said there was nothing there, but then again he told me Polyura Jupiter didn’t occur on Makira. Laurie had his own challenges.

I’m still sitting on a bunch of papered Papilio toborei which apparently anyone who wants has, and had to dump a bunch of Delias schoenbergi which also nobody wanted. Tough collecting crowd!

I like the Delias website. I was going to ask about subgenus groups, and voila there it is. Of course it means nothing to me. Are there any simpleton maps that show examples and distribution of any particular group to demonstrate a snapshot of morphological differences?

[wollastoni]

Looking at your website I did not see any representatives from New Britain or New Ireland like Delias bagoe.

All known Delias species have a specific page on the Delias website. Only the distribution entries are not finalized yet.

For Bismarck island Delias, go there :
- Delias butterflies of New Britain
- Delias butterflies of New Ireland

For a direct link for Delias bagoe : Delias bagoe

[wollastoni]

I like the Delias website. I was going to ask about subgenus groups, and voila there it is. Of course it means nothing to me. Are there any simpleton maps that show examples and distribution of any particular group to demonstrate a snapshot of morphological differences?

They are not "subgenus" but "species group". The Delias genus is monophyletic and thus no subgenus are recognized.
Talbot was the first to introduce Delias species groups (gathering species which are close one to another) to try and organize this huge genus. Since then, some DNA studies have confirmed the validity of most of these groups and moved some species from one group to another one. Some DNA studies are still running to better understand the position of recent species.

Most of these "species group" are very coherent with close species indeed.
Some are somewhat strange and should be divided in many species group but it won't be very practical.

To demonstrate a snapshot of morphological differences, it is good to see some drawers organized by species group. Some examples from my collection. It is ugly phone pictures with no light, but it will give you an idea.

- species group clathrata:


- species group eichhorni:
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- species group weiskei :


- species group iltis :

[daveuk]

Not quite as ugly as some of my phone pictures in this thread !!

[wollastoni]

I have received few impressive Delias eximia females recently, very hard to find in A1 quality.



More info about this rare species on the Delias website : https://www.delias-butterflies.com/spec ... ias-eximia

[wollastoni]

A very rare pair from my collection now : Delias itamputi.
This pair has been caught in Owgarra (Papua New Guinea) in 1911 by AS Meek.



AFAIK only one collector has collected some itamputi in the last 50 years, he found only few males.

It is a variable species as you can see on the Delias website : https://www.delias-butterflies.com/spec ... s-itamputi

[wollastoni]

I am glad to announce the discovery of the first female of Delias laknekei from New Ireland.

delias-laknekei-female.png (296.17 KiB) Viewed 2079 times

Full paper here : https://www.sugapa.org/wp-content/uploa ... al-142.pdf

[Chuck]

Congratulations Olivier!

What a spectacular catch.

I appreciate the brevity in the description and contrast. Especially so because I'm trying to make sense of one paper which has a description of a couple species we know well, but the the description goes on for pages with run-on sentences. Yours is concise and legible.

Can we get more details on the capture? Most people couldn't handle the travel to New Ireland, much less chasing canopy dwelling Delias.

[Trehopr1]

Wonderful !

Akin to seeing a newly minted shiny gold coin.

[wollastoni]

I appreciate the brevity in the description and contrast. Especially so because I'm trying to make sense of one paper which has a description of a couple species we know well, but the the description goes on for pages with run-on sentences. Yours is concise and legible.

Writing a paper in a foreign language is the best way to be concise and legible !
In French, I would have been longer for sure !