Tagiades ultra?

[gedra]

Hi, i found this skipper on Iriomote-jima, Japan. It looks like Tagiades ultra - are there any other similar species?

rgds
Geir

[Commander]

Welcome to ButterflyCircle, Geir. :cheers:

The genus Tagiades, of which what you have shot belongs to, has a number of lookalikes and the subspecies can vary across the geographical regions. Personally, I am not familiar with Japanese butterflies and I guess I'll have to defer to any experts who are knowledgeable about butterflies in that region.

I believe that there are some books on Japanese butterflies, or you may refer to the websites that exclusively feature the butterflies of Japan.

[Silverstreak]

Hi gedra,

By coincidence I just shot a Singapore Tagiades ultra here (http://www.butterflycircle.com/forums/showthread.php?p=97331#post97331) .

Your specimen appears to be significantly different in the forewing makings as compare to the Tagiades ultra , as indicated :

[gedra]

Hi, you are right about T. ultra having different markings. I will stay with Tagiades sp. for now.

cheers
Geir

[Painted Jezebel]

The markings appear to resemble those of T. ultra's more northern close relative, Tagiades litigiosus, which is found in S.E. Asia and certainly as far as Hong Kong. Unfortunately, I do not know if it reaches Japan.