Ceylon Ace

Rithmini Dinhara, Of course it's up to Sahana Vajirasena.

Vo Anh Tuan, there are many taxonomic issues between Halpe ceylonica and Halpe egena that are still unclear. However, they are no longer considered as subspecies of Halpe homolea, it is not even recorded in SL. It's been proved that Halpe homolea is significantly different from H. egena and H. ceylonica. And if you check under subspecies of H. homolea in Wikipedia, you will find that H. ceylonica and H. egena are not mentioned there as subspecies.

Halpe ceylonica is not listed in the Family Hesperiidae.

Thanks! :D

We don't have any snakes here... It's too much of a town for snakes. Plus I'm not much interested in them. Do try to get shots of those Hesperiidae. I really love seeing your butterfly spottings...

Oh good then. I hope you will get to capture a good shot :D I'm eager to see it again

Yes I saw it on the website too but it's confirmed in the van der Poorten & van der Poorten (2016) that Ceylon Ace's scientific name should be Halpe ceylonica. If it's Halpe homolea ceylonica, then Ceylon Ace would be considered as a subspecies of Halpe homolea, but that's not the case. Ceylon Ace is a separate species.

The scientific name should be Halpe ceylonica, not Halpe homolea ceylonica.

Did you see it again after the 1st time?

Sahana, the ID of the spotting I got similar to this was today confirmed to be of Ceylon Ace by an expert in this field, Dr. George Michael van der Poorten. I can't be 100% percent sure that these two are the same but this too might be Ceylon Ace. Do try to get clearer shots of this one. They will be helpful.

lucky you I don't have much here

Ah ok lol Btw the Chocolate Soldier spotting was amazing! Your garden sure has a rich biodiversity :)

I faced the same problem with the light reflection... If you manage to get a shot without light reflection, then we might find a proper ID for it! There was a cluster of bamboo trees near the place I spotted it. And Bambusa vulgaris is H. homolea ceylonica's host plant...

This is clearly not Halpe ceylonica... The colors are way too different. I will try to find someone to confirm our suspicions. My father might know... Post here if you get more records of this one :)

We should try to keep more tabs on this one. I took my shots when I was on a vacation to Bandarawela, but since now I'm back home I can't keep records. But as it visited your home garden, you can do it, right? Try to get some clearer pics and also pics of upperside view.

Maybe. Neither Halpe porus nor Halpe homolea has been recorded in SL as far as I know. Other than asking an expert, I can't think of any other way... By any chance, is there some butterfly expert you happen to know in Sri Lanka?

Vo Anh Tuan, what do you think about Halpe homolea?

It probably belongs to the Halpe genus. But more than that, I don't have any information. It looks somewhat close to Halpe porus and Halpe homolea, but they are not recorded in Sri Lanka. So we're at a dead end :(

I use a DSLR camera now. But some of my spotting here and in the previous account was taken using a phone. Yeah, I checked when I first saw it. But that's the only match I found. Still, I left it unnamed because Ceylon Ace's colors didn't match with this...

I'm looking for an ID for the same species... https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/951132774 So I don't have any this time. The closest match I found is Ceylon Ace (Halpe ceylonica) but I'm not even 50% sure about that. Forewing colors don't exactly match. But I haven't found any other matches either...