Revision to the Common Names of Butterflies 2

A Revision to the Common Names of Butterflies
Part 2 : An Analysis of Name Changes

We had earlier discussed the changes to the common names of butterflies in Part 1 of this series, where we agreed with Dr Kirton's changes due to "socially unacceptable reasons". In that article we featured butterflies with names like Nigger, Darkie or Brownie, which carried ethnic slurs that would be politically incorrect in today's social context.

Nigger no more...

In Part 2 of our discussion on the changes to the common names of butterflies, we take a look at some of the name changes and in some cases, offer an alternative perspective to these changes. In the study of zoology, and in particular, Lepidoptera, scientists often divide the world into eight specific faunistic zones, often referred to as ecozones. An ecozone is the broadest biogeographic division of the Earth's land surface, based on distributional patterns of terrestrial organisms.



The eight ecozones are, (based on World Wildlife Fund definition) the Palearctic, Nearctic, Afrotropic, Neotropic, Indo-Malaya, Australasia, Oceania and Antarctic.  The Indo-Malayan region, which is the area of interest as far as butterflies of Malaysia and Singapore are concerned, comprises South Asia covering India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and southern China, the Malay Peninsula and Singapore, the Large Sunda islands (Sumatra, Borneo and Java), the Philippine Islands, Sulawesi and Lesser Sunda Islands as far east as Timor.

Sundaland map

The zoogeographical subregion of the Indo-Malayan ecozone, known as the Sundanian Subregion (or often called Sundaland) comprises the Malay Peninsula (including Singapore), Sumatra, Borneo, Java and their satellite islands, and Palawan in the Philippines. It is largely the Sundaland subregion which we are concerned with, pertaining to the butterfly fauna of this region, and from which we base our literature reviews of books published about the butterflies in these countries.

Left : Butterflies of the Malay Peninsula 1st Edition (1934)  Right : The Identification of Indian Butterflies (1927)

Whilst there is no doubt that one of the first published literature which coined English common names for butterflies was already available for butterflies in the Indian subcontinent, e.g. "The Identification of Indian Butterflies by W.A. Evans in 1927, we also take into account that the earliest reference to the butterflies in Malaya/Malaysia and Singapore is "The Butterflies of the Malay Peninsula" by A.S. Corbet & H.M. Pendlebury in 1934.


Left : Common Malayan Butterflies (1960)  Right : Malaysian Butterflies - An Introduction (1983)

In the 60's and 80's, two more reference books, targeted for the amateur butterfly enthusiasts were published. The use of English common names (or trivial names) was more evident in these two references. These were "Common Malayan Butterflies" (CMB) by R. Morrell (in 1960) and "Malaysian Butterflies - An Introduction" (MBAI) by Prof Yong Hoi-Sen (in 1983). In the meantime, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th editions of "The Butterflies of the Malay Peninsula" were printed in 1956, 1978 and 1992 respectively.



It is with the background of these references, that we base our discussions and opinions on the English common names of butterflies in Malaysia and Singapore, and any revisions or publications that come thereafter, on butterflies of the Sundaland subregion.



In the review of the English common names suggested in Dr Kirton's latest book "A Naturalist's Guide to the Butterflies of Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand" (BPMST) we will start with a discussion on the species that are found in Singapore first. Future discussions will dwell on the species beyond Singapore's shores.



Dealing with the names by the butterfly families, we first take a look at the genus Graphium. In particular, the species Graphium evemon eventus. Based on our literature research on the early references, the name "Lesser Jay" was first used by Evans in his 1927 book. Other early authors declined to give a common name to this species. In the 90's the name "Blue Jay" was coined for the Singapore butterfly fauna, and through regular usage over the years, the name stuck.



Text excerpt from Evans book "Identification of Indian Butterflies" 1927

ButterflyCircle's "Butterflies of Singapore" (BOS) launched in 2010, the name Blue Jay was also adopted for Graphium evemon eventus. Many online references also used Blue Jay. To be consistent with the names used in the Indo-Malayan ecozone, the common name Lesser Jay should be adopted for this species henceforth.

Recommendation : Graphium evemon eventus should be referred to as the Lesser Jay.



The next species in the list is Ypthima horsfieldii humei. This species was given the common name the Malayan Five Ring by Pisuth Ek-Amnuay in his book, Butterflies of Thailand 1st Edition (BOT1) in 2006. The same name was also used in BOS. None of the early references by Evans nor C&P had a common name for this species.



In BMPST, Dr Kirton used the name Horsfield's Five Ring for this species. We do not see the rationale nor necessity to change the name, as the name does not appear to be used for any other species nor is confusing. The closely related species, Ypthima baldus newboldi is called the Common Five Ring, which causes no ambiguity with Ypthima horsfieldii humei.

Recommendation : Ypthima horsfieldi humei should retain its name Malayan Five Ring.



We move on to the subfamily Danainae and start with the Euploea or commonly referred to as the "Crows".  The first proposed change in BPMST was Euploea phaenareta castlenaui. The English common name is the Great Crow. This name was first coined by Evans for the species Euploea corus corus. This species was later revised to E. phaenareta, hence the reference to the Great Crow.



Closer to home, BOT1 and BOT2 also refers to E. phaenareta as the Great Crow. Through regular usage in Singapore, the English common name for this species is the King Crow, and is used in BOS as well as many online checklists. Again, for consistency and due to the taxonomic changes to the species' latin name, we acknowledge that E. phaenareta should be changed to Great Crow.

Recommendation : Euploea phaenareta castelnaui should be known as the Great Crow.



© Dr Laurence G Kirton : Explanation for the rationale of name revision for Striped Black Crow

The next species for discussion is Euploea eyndhovii gardineri. Evans gave the name Striped Black Crow for E. doubledayi. Dr Kirton explains that there was a split in the two species to E. doubledayi and E. eyndhovii and proposed that Striped Black Crow is retained for E. doubledayi and Lesser Striped Black Crow for E. eyndhovii. BOT2 also uses Lesser Striped Black Crow for E. eyndhovii but calls E. doubledayi the Greater Striped Black Crow. In his book, (MBAI), Prof Yong Hoi-Sen calls E. doubledayi the Larger Striped Black Crow.



It appears to be logical to retain the original name of Striped Black Crow for E. doubledayi and adopt the new name of Lesser Striped Black Crow for E. eyndhovii. Hence we support Dr Kirton's proposed change for the smaller species that flies in the southern parts of Malaysia and Singapore. In practice, however, the four-word name for this species may be a mouthful and butterfly enthusiasts may continue to use Striped Black Crow for this species this is more common, compared to its cousin up north.

Recommendation : Euploea eyndhovii gardineri should be called the Lesser Striped Black Crow.



The next species in the Danainae sub-family belongs to the Tigers. In BPMST, Dr Kirton calls Danaus melanippus hegesippus the White Tiger. This was also the name given to the species Danaus melanippus indicus by Evans. In Borneo, there is a subspecies Danaus melanippus thoe which is completely black and white. In recent years, various Indian butterfly groups have begun to call their subspecies the Indian White Tiger.



Recent local references, CMB (Morrell), BMAI (Yong HS), BOS (KhewSK) and even Kazuhisa Otsuka's Butterflies of Borneo and South East Asia all refer to Danaus melanippus as Black Veined Tiger. Over regular usage in the past six decades, the species has come to be referred to as the Black Veined Tiger in Malaysia and Singapore. As the descriptor "white tiger" may be a misnomer for this species, we propose that the English common name Black Veined Tiger be retained for this species.

Recommendation : Danaus melanippus hegesippus should retain its name Black Veined Tiger.



The next species of interest is the large black and white butterfly, Idea stolli logani. The current local English common name is the Common Tree Nymph. It is interesting to note that Evans coined several names for the subspecies of Hestia (now known as Idea) lynceus, ranging from Malabar Tree Nymph, Ceylon Tree Nymph, Kanara Tree Nymph, Tavoy Tree Nymph and so on. It may be confusing, as it would appear that it would be quite exceptional to have English common names for so many subspecies of I. lynceus when the physical differences between two or more subspecies may not be very apparent.


Multiple subspecies and multiple English Common Names for a single species - Idea lynceus



Subsequently in C&P1, Hestia lynceus reinwardti was called the Tree Nymph. This was repeated by Prof Yong in MBAI. In CMB, Morrell referred to Idea jasonia logani as the Common Tree Nymph. The revised scientific name for Idea jasonia logani is Idea stolli logani. Hence we continued the name coined by Morrell in 1960 for this species - Common Tree Nymph.


Tree Nymph (Idea lynceus). Note heavier shading on the wings

In BPMST, Dr Kirton adopted the name Ashy-White Tree Nymph for Idea stolli logani. It would appear that this 'newly invented' name originated from BOT1 by Pisuth. The descriptor "ashy-white" would normally refer to something that is greyish in colour (ash), and does not appear to be appropriate for Idea stolli which certainly appears much whiter than Idea lynceus. If anything, this name could be more suited to Idea lynceus. But it is already called the Tree Nymph. Hence we propose that the name Common Tree Nymph continues to be adopted for Idea stolli logani.

Recommendation : Idea stolli logani should retain its name Common Tree Nymph.



The final species of Part 2 of this series on English Common Names is the related Idea leuconoe chersonesia. In Evan's book, he called this the Siam Tree Nymph - largely due to the subspecies Idea leuconoe siamensis. The common name for this subspecies name is also used in BOT2 by Pisuth. There are many other common names coined for this species, ranging from Paper Kite, Rice Paper, White Tree Nymph, Large Tree Nymph and others. In BOS, we used the name Mangrove Tree Nymph for this species.



There are many subspecies of I. leuconoe and certain subspecies are easily bred as display species in many butterfly parks all over the world. In particular, the subspecies from Taiwan, ssp clara appears to be the one that is abundant in butterfly parks. However, the subspecies that occurs as a native species in Malaysia and Singapore (including the Indonesia islands close to Singapore) is ssp chersonesia. Morrell in CMB and Corbet in C&P4 both describe this subspecies as "a seashore species and frequents mangrove areas" and "confined to mangrove swamps". In BPMST, Dr Kirton refers to Idea leuconoe as Large Tree Nymph. It would be more definitive and appropriate to refer to Idea leuconoe chersonesia as the Mangrove Tree Nymph to better describe its association with mangrove habitats in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.

Recommendation : Idea leuconoe chersonesia should retain its common name as the Mangrove Tree Nymph.

Text by Khew SK : Photos by Sunny Chir, Goh LC, Khew SK, Loke PF, Simon Sng and Anthony Wong

References :

[BPMST] A Naturalist's Guide to the Butterflies of P. Malaysia, Singapore & Thailand, Laurence G Kirton : John Beaufoy Publishing 2014
[C&P1] The Butterflies of The Malay Peninsula, A.S. Corbet and H.M. Pendlebury, 1st Edition, Kyle & Palmer, 1934.
[C&P4] The Butterflies of the Malay Peninsula, A.S. Corbet and H.M. Pendlebury, 4th Edition, Revised by Col John Eliot, Malaysian Nature Society, 1992
[BOT1] Butterflies of Thailand, Pisuth Ek-Amnuay, 1st Edition, Amarin Printing & Publishing, 2006
[BOT2] Butterflies of Thailand, Pisuth Ek-Amnuay, 1st Edition, Amarin Printing & Publishing, 2012
[CMB] Common Malayan Butterflies, R. Morrell, Longmans Malaysia, 1960
[MBAI] Malaysian Butterflies - An Introduction, Yong Hoi-Sen, Tropical Press, Malaysia, 1983
[BOS] Field Guide to the Butterflies of Singapore, Khew SK, Ink On Paper Publishing, Singapore, 2010
[BBSEA] Butterflies of Borneo & South East Asia, Kazuhisa Otsuka, Hornbill Books, Malaysia, 2001
[IIB] Identification of Indian Butterflies, W.A. Evans, Diocesan Press, India, 1927

Butterfly of the Month - January 2013

Butterfly of the Month - January 2013
The Blue Jay (Graphium evemon eventus)

The month of January 2013 seems to have whizzed by again. It felt that it was only yesterday that Singaporeans were celebrating the countdown at Marina Bay to welcome the new year, and some of us were making our New Year resolutions! Well, more than three weeks have passed, as the year 2013 kicks into gear. The wet weather appears to be hanging on longer than usual, as the past few weeks have been an abnormally rainy. But it looks like the weather will be changing soon, and it will be butterfly season again!

The initial weeks of January have been rather quiet on our little red dot, except perhaps with the excitement of a by-election in the Punggol East single-member constituency. Election fever has gripped us again, although essentially, only 31,649 registered Singaporean voters are eligible to decide on who their Member of Parliament should be, come 26 Jan 2013. The ruling party's candidate will be pitted against three opposition candidates for a showdown that many predict to be a watershed by-election for Singapore. Will the PAP retain its parliamentary seat? Or will the Opposition wrest it away? Stay tuned to your favourite news channels on Saturday night!

Over a quick two-day trip up north to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia over the early part of the week to attend a conference, I observed that in many ways, the plight of rising costs, labour shortage and the competition for talent is very similar to our building industry in Singapore. The Malaysian economy appears to be chugging along quite fine, and some say that it has an even stronger endurance than that of Singapore.

I also met up with some newfound friends amongst the Facebook gardening community and had a pleasant taste of Malaysian hospitality. The Internet is a great platform for bringing together like-minded people from different walks of life, across borders and irrespective of race or religion. The camaraderie enjoyed online is often carried into the real world as friends meet to discuss common interests and share experiences.

This month we feature a speedy butterfly, the Blue Jay (Graphium evemon eventus).  With a powerful and erratic flight, this butterfly is challenging to photograph, as it zips past observers at breakneck speed in the forested nature reserves of Singapore. However, when it stops to puddle at sandy streambanks, the odds of getting a closeup shot of the Blue Jay would be much better.

The Blue Jay is a forest-dependent butterfly, and is predominantly found in the nature reserves. It is seldom seen in urban parks and gardens. It is difficult to identify with certainty when in flight, and is often confused with the Common Bluebottle (Graphium sarpedon luctatius) and the Common Jay (Graphium doson evemonides), two other species of the same genus found in Singapore. Over in Malaysia, there are at least four more lookalike species that would add further to the confusion when trying to identify these butterflies in the field!

A Blue Jay opens its wings to sunbathe on a Melastoma bush after a long bout of puddling

The Blue Jay wing's are black above with a blue macular band. Both the fore and hind wings have a series of blue submarginal spots. On the undersides, the spots are larger but takes on a slivery-blue hue. There is a series of bright red spots on the underside of the hindwings. The distinguishing black costal bar which is united with the basal bar on the underside of the hindwing distinguishes the Blue Jay from its other lookalike cousins.

 
 

Blue Jays puddling at moist sandy streambanks (top and middle) and stopping to rest amongst the bushes (bottom)

Caterpillars of the Blue Jay are believed to feed on a type of Cinnamon that can be found quite commonly in the forested areas of Singapore. The head of the pupa features a horned process. The males of the species are often observed puddling at sandy streambanks in the company of other Papiliondae like the Common Bluebottle and the FiveBar Swordtail. It can be considered common and can almost be found throughout the year.

Two pairs of Blue Jays and Common Bluebottle puddling together

During puddling, it can be observed that the butterfly often ejects a stream of fluids out of its abdomen. This is probably due to the large amounts of water intake as it sucks up nutrients via its proboscis. Often, after a long period of puddling and having satiated itself, an individual flies to a nearby bush, and perches to rest with its wings opened fully to display its nice blue uppersides that contrast beautifully with the black borders.

Text by Khew SK : Photos by Sunny Chir, Khew SK, Henry Koh, Loke PF, Simon Sng, Jonathan Soong, Anthony Wong, Mark Wong and Wong CM.

This blog post is dedicated to ButterflyCircle's youngest member, Brian Goh, who uses the nick "Blue Jay" on our forums. Brian represents the future generation of butterfly conservationists in Singapore.

Life History of the Blue Jay

Life History of the Blue Jay (Graphium evemon eventus)

Butterfly Biodata:
Genus: Graphium Scopoli, 1777
Species: evemon Boisduval, 1836
Subspecies: eventus Fruhstorfer, 1908
Wingspan of Adult Butterfly: 50-65mm
Local Caterpillar Host Plant: Artabotrys wrayi (Annonaceae).

A pair of puddling Blue Jay.

A Blue Jay perching on a leaf.

Physical Description of Adult Butterfly:
As with most Graphium species, the wings are produced at the forewing apex and hindwing tornus, and the inner margin of the hindwing bends inwards. On the upperside, the wings are black with a broad bluish macular band running from the sub-apical area of the forewing to the basal area of the hindwing. There is also a series of blue streaks in the cell of the forewing. A series of blue submarginal spots is present in both fore- and hindwings. On the underside, the same spotting pattern can be found against a dark brown base, with the spots larger and more silvery green. Additional red and black spots are featured on the hindwing. Unlike the lookalike species, the Common Jay, the black costal bar in the hindwing of the Blue Jay does not have a red spot, and it is joined to the black basal band.

A puddling Blue Jay.

Another Blue Jay puddling with fully open wings.

Field Observations of Butterfly Behaviour:
Blue Jay is common in Singapore and is oftern seen flying up and down jungle tracks in the nature reserve on sunny days. The males are often observed puddling at damp forest paths and stream banks. The adults are fast flyers and have an "erratic" flight.

It's a Bird! No, it's a Butterfly!!

It's a Bird! No, it's a Butterfly!!
Jays and Albatrosses


A Common Jay perches on a leaf

Recently, during a visit to the California Academy of Sciences tropical rainforest conservatory in San Francisco, a young boy next to me exclaimed to his mother, "Look, mommy, a pretty Blue Jay!". I turned around quickly, expecting to see a fast-flying individual of Graphium evemon that I am familiar with. But no, it was a bird. Pretty no doubt, but certainly a bird and not a butterfly!

A Blue Jay puddling on sandy ground

Not too long ago, I wrote a post on the common English names of some butterflies in the region, and some theories behind how the names were coined. In that article, the names mainly came from military and aristocratic titles. My recent experience in San Francisco reminded me that there are quite a few groups of butterflies that shared common English names with birds. A look at some of the literature available yielded a few groups of butterflies in Singapore that had names of birds.

A puddling Tailed Jay

This article features just two groups of them - one from the Papilionidae family and the other from the Pieridae family that has common names that may confuse these butterflies with birds! There are others, which I will leave for future articles. The first group that will be featured in today's blog post, are the Jays.

The Jays

If we google the name "Blue Jay", and look for websites or images, chances that the search will feature more bird articles and images than butterflies. In the world of ornithology, the collective group Jays refer to several species of medium-sized, usually colourful and noisy, passerine birds of the crow family, Corvidae. In the image below, an image search yielded many photos of this pretty blue bird of which there are several different species in North America and Canada.

A screen capture of images after googling "Blue Jay"

Back in our world of lepidoptera, a Blue Jay refers to the species Graphium evemon eventus a fast-flying swallowtail that is relatively common in our forested areas in Singapore. It is regularly observed puddling at muddy banks of streams. The collective term "Jay" also features two other species in Singapore - the Common Jay (Graphium doson evemonides) and the Tailed Jay (Graphium agamemnon agamemnon)

A puddling Blue Jay

The Common Jay is found more regularly on the offshore island of Pulau Ubin where its host plants, Desmos chinensis (Annonaceae, common name: Dwarf Ylang Ylang), Michelia alba (Magnoliaceae, common name: White Champaca), Polyathia longifolia var. pendula (Annonaceae, common name: False Ashoka Tree), grow quite commonly. Its life history has been recorded in our blog here.


A puddling Common Jay

The third Jay is the green-spotted Tailed Jay. A common urban butterfly, the caterpillars of this species feed on the Soursop plant, amongst several other species of alternative host plants. This species is found in urban parks and gardens as well as in the forested areas of our nature reserves. This is the largest species in the genus Graphium. Over in Malaysia, there are at least three more species of the same genus that bear the English common name "Jay".


Another puddling Tailed Jay

So the next time you are out in the field and someone shouts look at that "Jay", don't just assume that it is a butterfly that will fly past. Although in equatorial Singapore, it would be unlikely that it will be a bird! Perhaps the collector who first coined the name "Jay" for butterflies is most likely a non-local who associated the blueness of the butterfly with a bird from his home country?

The Albatrosses

The second group of bird-butterfly common name is the Albatross. Again, from the ornithological viewpoint, the Albatross belongs to the family Diomedeidae. This family features magnificent birds that are usually associated with coastal habitats. Albatrosses are among the largest of flying birds, and the Great Albatross (genus Diomedea) has the largest wingspans of any extant birds, reaching up to 12 feet (3.7 m).


A screen capture of images after googling "Albatross"

Although it is unlikely that we will encounter one of these large birds in Singapore, yelling out the name "Albatross" to a group of visiting bird watchers from temperate countries may invite curious stares and raised eyebrows! Two species of butterflies, the Striped Albatross and the Chocolate Albatross, occur here in Singapore.


A male Striped Albatross feeding on a Bidens flower

The Striped Albatross (Appias libythea olferna) is a common urban butterfly, that frequents parks and gardens on bright sunny days. The caterpillar of this species feeds on a common "weed" Cleome rutidosperma. The male butterfly is predominantly white, with black veins, whilst females have grey shaded wings. The Striped Albatross has a fast and erratic flight but is certainly less majestic than its gliding avian namesake.


A female Striped Albatross feeding on a Bidens flower

The Chocolate Albatross (Appias lyncida vasava) on the other hand, is seasonal and does not appear to be a resident species in Singapore. Up north in Malaysia, it is very common, and even seasonally abundant. During certain months of the year, the Chocolate Albatross may be observed in Singapore. At times, there may be several individuals seen together in local areas.


A male Chocolate Albatross puddling

The Chocolate Albatross is also a fast flying butterfly and in its native country Malaysia, up to 20 or more individuals have been often observed, puddling together at sandy riverbanks, together with other species of butterflies. The distinctive bright lemon yellow hindwing in the male separates it from any other species of butterflies. Females are rare and often seen feeding at flowers and flying in the forested areas.


A male Chocolate Albatross with half-opened wings basking in the sunshine

So there you have it, two groups of butterflies that share common names with our feathered friends. Although the similarities between butterfly and bird are hard to associate, it is likely that the Jays were coined as names for butterflies of the Graphium genus that are mainly blue, reminiscent of the blue coloured birds of the same name. For the Albatrosses, it is also possible that the butterflies, which are predominantly white when in flight, reminded the original author of the magnificent ocean-going birds of the northern hemisphere.

Text by Khew SK : Photos by Chng CK, Huang CJ, Khew SK, Koh CH, Bobby Mun & Anthony Wong