misoolana

8. Ssp. misoolana Deslisle, 1985²⁾ [♀] [♀: Deslisle, 1989³⁾]

(Distribution) [Map 43]

INDONESIA [Irian Jaya] Misool Is.

(Episodes of discovery and original description)

The first specimen (♀) from Misool Island was collected by ornithologist Erwin Streseman in 1912 and described by Lord Rothschild in 1915 as a nominotypical subspecies. In 1985, Mr. Deslisle described it as ssp. misoolana based on 5♀♀, and the ♂ specimen was also described by him 4 years later in 1989.

(Characteristics)

A poorly known subspecies. The type specimen (♀) was collected at 1,000 m altitude.

(Spotted pattern)

♂: Stocky, but difficult to distinguish from other subspecies.

♀: Stocky and rounded. Wing ground color is blackish brown. Pale spots on FW are moderately large, and the cell-spot and the discal spot of space 2 are prominent. On HW, the dark discal spots in spaces 6 and 2 are large and fused with ground color, resulting in a smaller pale band in many individuals. Black margin along the veins in pale band is absent basically. (Holotype and Paratype differ from the above specimen in that HW pale band is more extended and dark discal spots are smaller, giving the impression of a different subspecies.)