The Flash Royal (Tajuria deudorix ingeni)
A Flash Royal perched atop a leaf in the shady forest understorey
We are almost past month five of the year. The summer heat is beginning to be felt in countries in the northern hemisphere of which Singapore is one. Temperatures are soaring into the 30's on some days and the heat outdoors can be quite unbearable on some days, especially with the high humidity. There have been some days this month where the island was inundated with stormy rains and there were flash floods on the morning of Singapore's Polling Day!
Speaking of polling, Singapore conducted its General Elections on 3 May this year, and the first one for our new Prime Minister and his team. The opposition mounted a very strong fight and seemed to be more organised - at least for the main opposition party. The smaller parties seemed to have lost good people except for a handful of veterans and posed little threat to the ruling party. The results were surprising to some, as PM Wong delivered a resounding win and even increased the vote share for this GE, cementing his position as the 4G PM with a strong mandate from the electorate.
On the global stage, the economic volatility continues with the US changing its stance quite regularly, created a lot of uncertainty in the markets. A recent intervention by the US government to stop certain top Ivy League universities from accepting foreign students takes the cake in demonstrating insecurity and is reminiscent of discrimination of sorts. It will certainly make countries re-evaluate options when sending their top students to the universities in the US.
Our Butterfly of the Month for May was a recent re-discovery in 2023, the Flash Royal (Tajuria deudorix ingeni). Its late entry to the Singapore butterfly checklist is mainly due to its very close similarity to another more common species, the Felder's Royal (Tajuria mantra mantra). Only due to an opportunistic discovery of its caterpillars was the identity and existence of a distinct species of Tajuria established with certainty and distinguished from its lookalike relative.
Upperside of the male Flash Royal (top) and female Flash Royal (bottom)
The male Flash Royal is a deep shining blue on the upperside with black distal borders on both forewing and hindwing; the female is light purplish blue with black borders. On the forewing, the black border in the female is narrower, reaching near cell apex. The forewing dorsal area is whitened.
On the underside, both sexes are dark slate brown with a postdiscal series of dark brown striae on both wings. The post-discal line on the forewing is closer to the termen than to the cell end. In the hindwing, black tornal spots are present in spaces 1a and 2. Adjacent to these spots, prominent orange patches extend towards the postdiscal line, and upwards into spaces 3 and 4. Each hindwing has a pair of white-tipped black tails at end of veins 1b and 2.
Key to separating the Felder's Royal from the Flash Royal :
On the upperside, there are two main differences between the Flash Royal and the Felder's Royal.
- The male Felder's Royal is greenish blue and the female is greyish blue, whereas both sexes of the Flash Royal are purer blue;
- The dorsal area of the forewing is whitened in the Flash Royal, but not whitened in the Felder's Royal.
On the underside, the differences are more subtle and mainly occur in the hindwing.
- 1. the parts of the postdiscal line in spaces 2 and 3 are straighter in the Flash Royal, but more curved in lower portion in the Felder's Royal;
- 2. the part of the postdiscal line in space 1b resembling a chevron is more rounded in the Flash Royal, but more pointed in the Felder's Royal.
- 3. The marginal patch in space 1b is bluish green dotted with black in the Felder's Royal, but whitish dotted with black in the Flash Royal.
A newly eclosed Flash Royal drying its wings next to its empty pupa case
The Flash Royal is skittish and is a fast flyer like most of the other species of the Tajuria genus. Observations of the adult butterfly tends to be when it is resting in the shaded forest canopy with its wings folded upright or when it is feeding on flowering plants. It is noteworthy that sightings of the Flash Royal in the past three decades have all been confined to the Southern Ridges. It has been bred on two mistletoe species - Malayan Mistletoe (Dendropthoe pentandra) and the Rusty-leafed Mistletoe (Scurrula ferruginea).
Text by Khew SK : Photos by Khew SK, Loh MY and Horace Tan
