InsectNet forum

Hello Peter,
Very good indeed to see you here again !
Those are both very superb species which you have acquired.
Nice to know that you are still at it and are successful at getting some of the real tough and/or little known species.

In the past, you showed us a portion of your delias collection and it was SUPERB. Hope you are very much enjoying it and anytime that you can post anything from your collection I know it would strike up conversation.

Two historical Delias bornemanni a rare Delias from the Owen Stanley Range in New Guinea. The first was caught by the late Ray Straatman famous for discovering the life histories of a number of Birdwing butterflies. He caught it on the famous Kokoda Trail in 1971. The second specimen was caught on the Aroa River in 1903 by the great Albert Stewart Meek. A hero of mine and now we have a great biography ‘ The Man Who Shot Butterflies by John Tennent.

2 very rare and historic specimens. Great to associate a Straatman and a Meek specimen in your collection !

I have 2 pairs, one recent male found by Chris Muller and the others came from old collections bought in France.

Another nice Delias from the Clathrata Group is Delias boschmai. This rarity was captured in Homeyo, Baylabu River and village, West Papua.

Another new Delias for me is this splendid Delias bobaga from Bomomani in the Weyland Mountains, West Papua. I think this is the nominate species.

Great other top rarities.
As far as I know, no one has collected in the Weylands in the last 20 years...

Congrats, Peter !

Very nice indeed Peter !
Well done....

Thank you Trehopr1 and Olivier for you kind words. A rare butterfly I recently acquired is this Delias catocausta nominate male from Langda in the Star Mountains. It was discovered not too far away on Mount Goliath (Mount Yamin) by A.S Meek in the moss forest of the mountains.

Delias catocausta is indeed a rarity now. And I have heard that Mount Goliath has been severely deforested...

The white margin on HW varies a lot as I have one specimen with nearly no white at all.

BTW I would agree with Tuzon that ssp. eefi from Tembagapura is a true species. Very different from nominate.

That's interesting Olivier what you say about Delias catocausta. The supposed subspecies D. catocausta eefi is shown here from Tembagapura. I also agree with you they look like two different Delias species. I have three males of eefi in my collection and they vary little.

Delias gilliardi male and female from Mount Hagen, Papua New Guinea. A lovely species.

Hello Peter,
Those two lovely black species you just posted are exceptional. I think these black species are especially cool along with D. mayerhoferi (?) which is tops in its black and red garb.

On general appearance I have to say that D. gilliardi just doesn't have the general appearance of a delias at all. The shape of its forewings forms more of a pointed apex rather than the typical rounded tip that Delias have. However, it still remains a very beautiful little species and your specimens are certainly "spot on" superb !

The underside of Delias gilliardi is one of the most beautiful : https://www.delias-butterflies.com/spec ... -gilliardi

Females are very rare in collection.

Delias hallstromi from Kerowagi District (top) and Mount Hagen New Guinea with the rare female 'middle specimen' collected by a friend.

Delias flavissima is an attractive species. This male came from Guimine in Chimbu Province, Papua New guinea.

nomad wrote: Mon Feb 24, 2025 12:18 pm Delias hallstromi from Kerowagi District (top) and Mount Hagen New Guinea with the rare female 'middle specimen' collected by a friend.

How many of these Delias are rare in the wild? Mount Hagen isn't exactly remote from civilization, there's a daily flight.

Depends.
Delias hallstromi is not rare on Mount Hagen. Females though are hard to find as they stay in the canopy (a friend of mine has been lucky and caught several of them including the one shown by Peter).
Delias flavissima is not rare in Gumine. The female is still undescribed (even if it is work in progress)

Some other species are extremely rare on the field. For example, the Pass Valley is a popular collecting spot... and Delias fioretti who lives there is known by less than 5 specimens.

As always, "rare" means "rare in collection".
Several species have still undescribed female, unknown locality (where does Delias nigropunctata really lives ???), some have been found only once because nobody can go in some Papuan area (Foja Mounts Delias), some are known from less than 10 specimens (Delias elusiva, ...), some have a large distribution area but are really hard to find (Delias agoranis) and so on.

Two gems in my collection are this pair of Delias Bagoe from the Lelet Plateau, New Ireland.

wollastoni wrote: Tue Feb 25, 2025 1:56 pm Depends.
Delias hallstromi is not rare on Mount Hagen. Females though are hard to find as they stay in the canopy (a friend of mine has been lucky and caught several of them including the one shown by Peter).

Just an idea to maybe pass on?

In Solomons I saw constantly some canopy dwelling Lycaenids that NEVER came down. I watched them for years, around a big Mango tree at the hotel.

One afternoon a thunderstorm came in and it got very dark very quickly. I had the sliding door from the room to the patio open, and they flew right in, headed for the lights.

Maybe a MV at dusk or before a thunderstorm?

Another quite hard to get is this specimen labelled a male Delias Citronia. I see from the Delias of the World website that it is now considered a subspecies of Delias fascelis. The specimen was collected at Magoda in the Weyland Mountains at 2100 meters in 1995. It is interesting that there has been no collecting in the Weyland Mountains for the past twenty years or so.