iris

2. Ssp. iris (Röber, 1888)⁷⁾ [♂, ♀]

(Distribution) [Map 110]

INDONESIA [Maluku] Leti Islands (Leti Is., Moa Is., Lakor Is.).

(Episodes of discovery and original description)

Röber (1888) described it as an independent species on the basis of ♂ and ♀ specimens collected by Kühn and Jacobsen on Leti Island. In the same original article, he described the species from Luang as staudingeri, also an independent species, and stated that the difference between the two species was the presence or absence of red hairs on the neck and sides, and the presence or absence of yellow on the underside of the abdomen. The name iris is a Latin word meaning “rainbow goddess.

(Characteristics)

The absence of red hair tufts on the neck and the lateral thorax is characteristic.

(Spotted pattern)

Very similar to ssp. ariadne, but both sexes are easily distinguished by the lack of red hair tufts on the neck and lateral thorax.

♂: Many individuals have somewhat smaller golden patch on HW than ssp. ariadne.

♀: The wing ground color is dark brown, the darkest of the subspecies, and the vein stripes on FW are most indistinct, lacking the vein-stripe along V^1b. The yellow patch on HW is smallest of the subspecies.

(Variation)

♂-f. melanie Rumbucher & Schäffler, 2004⁹⁾: [Aberrant HW pattern] Strongly reduced golden patches on HW. Only spots in discal spaces 5 – 4 are about 1/3 the length of space, and those in discal spaces 6 – 3 are minute. (➡darsius )

♂-f. irinkai Rumbucher & Schäffler, 2004⁹⁾: [Aberrant HW pattern] Strongly enlarged golden patches on HW, which present in 6 discal spaces and in the outer half of the cell. This spotted pattern resembles that of ssp. heptanonius.