• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Butterflies of the Forbidden Kingdom - China (1 Viewer)

Dev
Many thanks for taking the time to look at my photos. I suspected the Mycalesis would be francisca, was very common in Vietnam also.

Very pleased with the skipper det, i could not get anywhere with that one.

Here is another Skipper, I'm sure it is Parnara presumably ganga, bada or apostata but online images more confusing than helpful, probably because as many are misidentified as correctly named.

And a Pierid that I am quite sure is Pieris canidia

cheers
Dave

Hi David,

The Hesp. looks good for P.ganga and you were spot on with P.canidia
 
I was there as part of a birdwatching group in May and it was utterly horrendous. On the worst day I had my passport checked 7 times. The final time I was dragged off the street into the nearest police station having just checked into the only hotel in town that allows foreigners to stay where my passport had already been checked by both the police and public security.

Most (but certainly not all) of the officials we met were pleasant enough, they simply didn't know what to do with five westerners.

It was also difficult getting accurate information about which towns, roads and areas were open to foreigners.

It was once my favourite part of China and I'd previously spent a total of 12 weeks there without any serious hassle. I will never return.

For anyone thinking of going - don't - you will spend more time in police stations than in the field.

I can totally understand the frustration, Paul. The only thing, i dint go through is the cavity check. A dark guy with a beard is easy picking for them. At Altai, cops tried to install a tracking software on my phone. When it dint work, they called me every hour to give them my location. Because of this constant harassment, i left Altai on the next day.
At Bole, i was surrounded by a dozen cops and one of them told me to shave off my beard right infront of him.

As you said, i will never return.
 
Many thanks Dev

Two more from Longcanggou, fairly confident of my dets, although I know Symbrenthia is a very tricky genus.

Callarge occidentalis
Symbrenthia brabira


cheers
dave
 

Attachments

  • 0182 Callarge occidentalis Longcanggou 19-5-18x.jpg
    0182 Callarge occidentalis Longcanggou 19-5-18x.jpg
    406.7 KB · Views: 16
  • 0171 Symbrenthia brabira Longcanggou 19-5-18x.jpg
    0171 Symbrenthia brabira Longcanggou 19-5-18x.jpg
    344.8 KB · Views: 12
Hi David,

The first one was a real head ache and it is still. The field guide doesn't list C. occidentalis but C.sagitta. Wiki says occidentalis is a form of C.sagitta. so, its upto to you to pick a side.

Seconded the S.brabira
 
Thanks Dev

by "the field guide" I presume you mean Wu Chunsheng & Hsu Yufeng 2017 Butterflies of China (4 volume set)?

I am surprised this massive work does not even list name, even if only as a synonym. I am going by this taxonomy which treats the two taxa as separate species. As you can see both were described by Leech in the same year, astonishingly in different genera! I suspect something wrong here, given that Callarge was apparently not coined till 2 years later! I will go with occidentalis as the taxon described from Sichuan.

Next two
Lethe christophi Longcanggou 19 May 2018
Colias fieldii Rouergai 23 May 2018

Both from notoriously difficult genera, but in both cases det fairly convincing. Hope you agree?

cheers
Dave
 

Attachments

  • 0183 Lethe christophi Longcanggou 19-5-18x.jpg
    0183 Lethe christophi Longcanggou 19-5-18x.jpg
    252.3 KB · Views: 21
  • 0269 Colias fieldii Rouergai 23-5-18x.jpg
    0269 Colias fieldii Rouergai 23-5-18x.jpg
    349.7 KB · Views: 23
Hi David,

I don't want to get into the pandora box. Here is a paper from 2008, I can't make heads or tails of it, not the language but the taxonomy is too complicated for my simple mind.

Atleast, one thing i can figure is occidentalis is a subspecies of C.sagitta, that's why it's not covered in the Butterflies of China by Wu Chunsheng & Hsu Yufeng. That's what i referred earlier as well, i err'd by saying field guide (cough)


Agreed on both counts for L.christophi and C.fieldii.
 
Species No.23 : Woodland Brown

Another one from XinJiang. Saw it next to a small stream enroute to Hemu Village.

Common Name : Woodland Brown
Scientific Name : Lopinga achine
Chinese Name : 黄环链眼蝶
Distribution : Beijing, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Gansu

Surprisingly the handbook doesn't include XinJiang.
 

Attachments

  • Lopinga_achine_001.jpg
    Lopinga_achine_001.jpg
    396.1 KB · Views: 19
Again many thanks for confirmation.

These next "two" species are confusing, a more parsimonious conclusion would be that they are male and female of a single species, but I found fairly reliable literature about the genus and they appear, from that source, to be two species.

Sinopieris venata Baxi 24 May 2018
Sinopieris stoetzneri Baxi 24 May 2018
 

Attachments

  • 0338 Sinopieris venata Baxi 24-5-18x.jpg
    0338 Sinopieris venata Baxi 24-5-18x.jpg
    212.5 KB · Views: 21
  • 0339 Sinopieris stoetzneri Baxi 24-5-18x.jpg
    0339 Sinopieris stoetzneri Baxi 24-5-18x.jpg
    193.7 KB · Views: 21
Well, since you asked...

This is a pair of butterflies I photographed this weekend at the South China Botanical Garden in Guangzhou. I apologize for the poor quality of the photo, it was taken on the wing as these two would simply not stop fluttering around each other. I hope you can make something of it.

I was photographing some dragonflies at the time and have no field guide to butterflies, so am at something of a loss.

Thanks for looking,

Russ
 

Attachments

  • DSC_5229-3.jpg
    DSC_5229-3.jpg
    764.3 KB · Views: 24
I concur with your ID. venata occurs in Sichuan and Gansu, stoetzneri in Sichuan and Yunnan.

Many thanks Dev

These next two include a Coenonympha that does not fit anything I can find, but probably a form of amaryllis and a Lycanid that I am sure must be Cupido argiades?

0415 Coenonympha cf. amaryllis nr. Jiuzhaigou 26 May 2018.
0426 Cupido argiades Jiuzhaigou 26 May 2018

cheers
Dave
 

Attachments

  • 0415 Coenonympha cf amaryllis nr Jiuzhaigou 26-5-18.jpg
    0415 Coenonympha cf amaryllis nr Jiuzhaigou 26-5-18.jpg
    167.2 KB · Views: 22
  • 0426 Cupido argiades Jiuzhaigou 26-5-18.JPG
    0426 Cupido argiades Jiuzhaigou 26-5-18.JPG
    187.7 KB · Views: 13
Many thanks Dev

These next two include a Coenonympha that does not fit anything I can find, but probably a form of amaryllis and a Lycanid that I am sure must be Cupido argiades?

0415 Coenonympha cf. amaryllis nr. Jiuzhaigou 26 May 2018.
0426 Cupido argiades Jiuzhaigou 26 May 2018

cheers
Dave

Hi Dave,

This one's very tricky and as you said it does not fit anything and the closest one is amaryllis. Agreed with the argiades ID, has a very wide distribution and i do see them in Shanghai from time to time.
 
I sent the photo to my friend who also completed a butterfly trip in Sichuan in June. He confirmed positive about Coenonympha amaryllis.
 
I sent the photo to my friend who also completed a butterfly trip in Sichuan in June. He confirmed positive about Coenonympha amaryllis.

Excellent, many thanks Dev

Next two are both Aporia, found flying together in scrubby habitat near Jiuzhaigou.

Aporia potanini nr Jiuzhaigou 26-5-18 - This one I am confident of, although it does seem to be a very variable species.
Aporia cf oberthuri nr Jiuzhaigou 26-5-18 - Much less confident of this det but seems to be closest fit I can find.
 

Attachments

  • 0425 Aporia potanini nr Jiuzhaigou 26-5-18x.jpg
    0425 Aporia potanini nr Jiuzhaigou 26-5-18x.jpg
    419.5 KB · Views: 14
  • 0424 Aporia cf oberthuri nr Jiuzhaigou 26-5-18x.jpg
    0424 Aporia cf oberthuri nr Jiuzhaigou 26-5-18x.jpg
    215.6 KB · Views: 73
You are correct on both ID

Thanks again Dev

Three blues next
Images 0552 & 0554 I believe are Plebejus pseudaegon nr Pingwu 27 May 2018
Image 0596 another Cupido argiades nr Tangjiahae 28 May 2018
Image 0586 nr Tangjiahae 28 May 2018 no idea, cant even arrive at a genus!

cheers
Dave
 

Attachments

  • 0552 Plebejus pseudaegon nr Pingwu 27-5-18x.jpg
    0552 Plebejus pseudaegon nr Pingwu 27-5-18x.jpg
    326.2 KB · Views: 68
  • 0554 Plebejus pseudaegon nr Pingwu 27-5-18x.jpg
    0554 Plebejus pseudaegon nr Pingwu 27-5-18x.jpg
    370.7 KB · Views: 59
  • 0596 Cupido argiades nr Tangjiahae 28-5-18x.jpg
    0596 Cupido argiades nr Tangjiahae 28-5-18x.jpg
    138.2 KB · Views: 13
  • 0586 nr Tangjiahae 28-5-18x.jpg
    0586 nr Tangjiahae 28-5-18x.jpg
    191.6 KB · Views: 24
Hi Dave,

First two are bit nagging me. I have been been deep into the handbook trying to find something but nothing has panned so far. Handbook doesnt list P.pseudaegon in China list.
Something to consider is Polyommatus eros which has a wide distribution.

Agreed on C.argiades.

Another troublesome one, definitely a Satyrium type, possibly Satyrium tshikolovetsi
 
Warning! This thread is more than 5 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top