Male or Female Scarce Silverstreak?

[horace2264]

A skittish scarce silverstreak allowed me only one distant shot, and it took off when I snapped a closer shot.

Browsing the two shots on my computer, and was about to delete both of them when the bluish tint on the wings in motion in the second shot caught my eyes.
From the first shot I thought this is a female specimen with 3 pairs of tails (C&P4 and various threads in this forum suggest s), but only the male specimen has the blue patches on the upperside. :confused:

Any idea or suggestion? I am very sure the two shots are of the same butt.

Horace

[Sky Blue]

Base on the upperside, yrs should a male, but not really know how they count the pair of tails.

This is the female, totally no blue...
http://www.b-pals.com/butts/photo1/174_1130079617.jpg

[horace2264]

Let's hope someone can clarify on how the tails are counted. The female is supposed to have the third stumpy tail whereas the male does not.

Horace

[Cigaritis wong]

The male looks to have an impressive sheen of blue. Does anyone have an upperwing shot of a male? Can share?..thx.

[Silverstreak]

I believe this is the first picture with a glimpse of the upper surface of ME.

:bsmile:

[Cigaritis wong]

that's indeed priceless ... i tot either u or richard would hv got it ;-)

[Commander]

that's indeed priceless ... i tot either u or richard would hv got it ;-)

Don't worry. Richard will chiong to the favourite Silverstreak hunting spots this weekend and nail one open-winged male by next week. :bsmile:

[horace2264]

Revisited the site where the ``male'' scarce sillverstreak was spotted last week, and saw this scarce silverstreak chit-chatting with an ambon onyx high up on the shrub (see pic 1). Later when it flew around the shrub, I could spot the bluish-tint. Eventually it rested on a leaf nearby for me to take some near shots. Unfortunately the butt did not open its wing but out of the ten odd shots I took, one of them has a small shiny blue patch of its upperside revealed (pic 2).

Horace

[Cigaritis wong]

good effort n also for that side by side comparison, i haven't caught any ambon yet...looking forward to see a full upper wing shot.

[horace2264]

good effort n also for that side by side comparison, i haven't caught any ambon yet...looking forward to see a full upper wing shot.

Thanks Wong. I will leave it to others for the full upper wing shot of the male.

I have not taken a proper shot of an ambon myself, the one I spotted with the scarce silverstreak was too skittish for any close-up shot.

Horace

[horace2264]

Just share one more shot of the same scarce silverstreak with tails more visible for counting. I still count these as three pairs for this ``male'' specimen.

Please tell me if I am mistaken somehow.

Horace

[horace2264]

Dropped by the same site this afternoon and encountered the scarce silverstreak with bluish patches on the upperside again. This time only managed just 4 CMI shots before it disappeared. One of them gives a glimpse of its bluish patch. From the condition of its upper wing, this is a different individual from the one encountered two days ago. Again, I counted three pairs of white-tipped tails.

Horace

[Silverstreak]

Horace ,

Another male taken at the WWW for the record , thought it was a new species when it fluttered with its glorious upper wings shinning under the mid day sun. ... tracked and chased him for a good five minutes.:heat:

Unfortunately it was playing hide and seek with me on the Mile-a-minute bush and din have a good shot of it .:mad2:


From the condition of its upper wing, this is a different individual from the one encountered two days ago. Again, I counted three pairs of white-tipped tails.

...... it slightly revealed its blue upper hind wing in this record shot, and same as what you have previous recorded .... it has "3 pairs of white-tipped tails".

Perhaps we can ask Admin to migrate this and other similar butt sighting discussion here to the
Butterfly Sighting Records and Outings Checklists sub Forum (http://b-pals.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=28)

:cheers:

[horace2264]

Sunny,
Thanks for posting the supporting evidence. Definitely a male Scarce Silverstreak in my opinion. It looks likely that C&P4 erred in stating that the male has only two pairs of tails whereas our field observations and shots so far revealed three pairs for both male and female.

Horace

[Silverstreak]

We've forgotten about this thread on whether the male has two pairs of tails as stated in C&P4

These two specimen of confirmed males were shot on the second half of 2008

06-06-2008 (http://www.butterflycircle.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7285&highlight=silverstreak)

#1 and #2 is of same specimen with #2 showing the blue upper

#1
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d156/Schir/_MG_7106-1.jpg

#2
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d156/Schir/_MG_7124.jpg

16-11-2008 (http://www.butterflycircle.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8046&highlight=silverstreak&page=2)

#3
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d156/Schir/IMG_4105.jpg

Benedict's shot of same male (http://www.butterflycircle.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8055&page=2)
#4
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii215/bendanbutt/Silverstreak3post.jpg

The shots show that in fact the male does have 3 pairs of tails and just like the female on veins 1b and 2 and a stumpy one at vein 3.


:cheers:

[atronox]

The diff in length of the 3rd tail isn't very obvious esp in the field.
I think the most reliable way is simply to look at the upperside.

[Silverstreak]

The point here is that C&P 4 has erred in describing the male having only two pairs of tails.