Euploea

Euploea midamus chloe

This species is distributed in all Thailand but I yet to find it there. I only collected one specimen in Laos.
I assume that the species is not common.

Male- Phin district, Savannakhet Province, SE Laos.

I still have an old catalogue from The Butterfly Company, circa early or mid-'60s. The prices are ridiculously low, compared to today.

It is found in primary lowland forest, and there isn't an awful lot of that left. It is quite common in Khao Soi Dao, mentioned above.

It seems to me that many of these species are distributed in the peninsula and eastern Thailand (also Cambodia and Vietnam) but not in western Thailand north of Kanchanaburi or thereabouts. Inayoshi-san said yesterday that some Euploea spp reach as far west as Petchabun and even Nan and Phrae, but only a few are present in the northwest (Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son). There is a similar distribution pattern among many different butterflies, for example [i}Graphium eyrypylus[/i] and arycles.


We also discussed the degradation of habitats such as Khao Soi Dao since I first went there in 1978. This was particularly noticeable in the 1980s, as most of the surrounding land outside the boundaries of the wildlife sanctuary was completely cleared, as well as some degradation within the habitat. For example in about 1983 the park authorities built some structures in a small valley which used to be a bamboo thicket ... the very place that Stichophthalma cambodia and many other Amathusiinae occurred. I guess they thought that it was only bamboo rather than trees.

Clearance of land all around primary forest habitats has the effect of significantly drying the habitats themselves, even if no damage is sustained within the habitat. Similar issues have been seen all over Thailand, and I suspect that, as well as the 1983 fire on Doi Chiang Dao in the valley where Bhutanitis lidderdalii lived, the degredation of land all around the protected area helped to change the environment so much that the butterfly became extinct.

Adam.

Euploea crameri bremeri

This species inhabits Malay Peninsula and I yet to have do some more research in that area.
So far I collected only one female specimen on Koh Phangan, Thailand.

On a side node, in January 2020 Hong Kong issued a new bill that features an Euploea. I haven't seen the bill, but I was able to see some Euploea in the tropical growth on Victoria Peak. (E. mulciber when I remember correctly)

My favorite Euploea are those from San Christobal Island (Makira) with the white margins. As you can see, Danaus affinnis from Makira also have the white margin. And, which I can't say that it's mimicry note the white on the female endemic Hypolimnas exiguus.

Top left tray: three E. boisduvalii brenchleyi, the bottom right upright is E. nechos prusias, and the sideways is Tirumala euploeomorpha (probable).

Top right tray: all probably E. leucostictos imitata

Bottom left: Hypolimnas alimena fuliginescens, Hypolimnas exiguus

Bottom right: Danaus affinis insolata.

I didn't know Hypolimnas exiguus as a species. Which one is it? (and can you post a closer picture of it)