riedeli

8) Sp. riedeli (Kirsch, 1885)¹⁾ [♂, ♀]

(Distribution) [DCD 27], [Map 102]

INDONESIA [Maluku] Tanimbar (=Timorlaut) Islands (Yamdena Is. (Saumlaki), Sera Is.)

(Vertical distribution)

Unknown.

(Episodes of discovery and original description)

All of the specimens collected by Riedel on Timorlaut Island were donated to the Royal Zoological Museum in Dresden, where Butler (1883) organized them into 21 species and reported them. Later, Kirsch (1885) described four additional species, including two new species and one variant, among which this species belongs. The species name riedeli was given in honor of the collector Riedel.

(Characteristics)

Endemic to Tanimbar Islands and the easternmost inhabitant of Haliphron-Species- Group. A different species, T. staudingeri ikarus, also inhabits in the same islands. It is easy to distinguish it from other species as it has a unique wing shape and spotted patterns. There is little individual variation.

(Spotted pattern)

♂: FW apex is acute and outer margin is straightened. HW is ovoid. FW is glossy black with a slight vein-stripes. HW has a semi-translucent golden patch fanning out from cell-apex. Therefore, the spot of space 2 is the longest of six space spots, and one of subcostal space is the smallest. Such a pattern at first glance resembles those of T. darsius from Sri Lanka. On the underside of FW, vein-stripes are fairly distinct grayish white. Bright red hair tufts are present on the neck and lateral thorax. Upper surface of abdomen is black, and the margin of segments 3 – 8 are yellow on the under surface.

♀: The ground color of FW is glossy blackened brown, and there are broad, bright white vein-stripes from the cell-apex to subapical and submarginal portions of the wing. HW pale band is basically the same as in ♂, but only yellow spots of spaces 3 – 5 reach the cell. Black discal spots are isolated from each other but, in some individuals some of them touch black marginal projections.

(Larval foodplant)

Aristolochia tagala.²⁾