Unknown Stichopthalma

[Trehopr1]

I finally had some good fortune over this past
summer in running across a full drawer of
Jungle Queens (Stichopthalma); for sale...

Whilst, I was not interested in purchasing the
whole drawer I did have privy to "cherry-pick"
whatever I desired. Having absolutely (not a one)
specimen of this genus; I had to pinch myself to
keep from losing all sensibilities !

In the end, I came away with 6 of the best choices
representing 5 species. This unidentified large (female)
is something I'd like to get a reasonable ID on.

These can be tough to differentiate but, I'll certainly
appreciate anyone educated thoughts. Thanks....

[adamcotton]

You probably need to post a photo of the underside as well to help in identification of this difficult group.

Adam.

[daveuk]

I have obtained quite a few specimens of Vietnamese Stichophthalma over the past few years. I believe there is much taxonomic work to be done on the species of the genus particularly from Indo China. I was advised by Adam in another thread that this work has started in Japan already. Apparently it is far from straightforward in that all the male genitalia look exactly the same. There is considerable variation in the specimens I have so far set/spread seemingly of the same species.
From a purely aesthetic point of view I consider this whole genus to be really magnificent & somewhat underrated.
Would very much like to see your other recent acquisitions from this genus trehopr.

[adamcotton]

Since there was no reply with a photo of the underside I asked Inayoshi-san and he replied saying that he thinks it is S. devyatkini, see http://yutaka.it-n.jp/ama/50310001.html .

Adam.

[daveuk]

Not sure I agree with that. Here are two of my S devyakini.
Trehopr's specimen looks like a subspecies of S loiusa or S mathilda.
I include the plate from the llustrated checklist(& also the cover) of Butterflies of Vietnam written by Alexander L. Monastyrskii & Alexey L. Devyatkin published in 2015

[adamcotton]

Problem is, this is a female, and the illustration in 'Butterflies of Vietnam' is a male. I think Inayoshi-san mainly used the characters he can see in combination with the locality data. As I said above, a photo of the underside would be helpful.

Adam.

[daveuk]

I do have a female devyatkini. Identical markings but slightly larger.

[Trehopr1]

Hello Adam,
Sorry for the delay in getting that picture. Life has just
been very busy as of late with no hobby time. I very much
appreciate you doing some detective work to sort out
this specimen.

Just saw your post from earlier today so, I dropped
everything to get you the underside view.

Here is the verso of that specimen. I'll also include
another shot of the top-side.

*Many thanks Dave as well for your interest and points
of view. You have shown quite a few diffrent species so
far so your thoughts are appreciated !

[adamcotton]

I asked Inayoshi-san to look at the new photos, and here is his reply:

"About strange Stichophthalma,
We can not say what species this population is.
I also asked Saito-san and he said it would be either devyatkini or eamesi.
He judged that it is more likely to be eamesi.

It seems intermediate between mathilda and devyatkini for me.
So I suppose it could be variation of devyatkini.

This genus is very difficult to identify, because can not use genitalia and have highly individual and geographical variations.
Moreover, it is unclear whether louisa, mathilda, devyatkini, etc. are different species or the same species.
DNA analysis of the entire genus is necessary in the future."