Error message
Unable to fetch location details at this time.
White Tiger
Danaus melanippus edmondii ♂
15.4561, 119.922
Field Notes
Description:
Nymphalidae; Danainae; Danaini; Danaus melanippus edmondii Lesson, 1837. The White Tiger shown here is a male, according to pictures displayed in Philippine Lepidoptera. When researching this butterfly, I came across a bit of a conundrum. In https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danaus_melanippus... this subspecies is listed as follows: "D. m. edmondii (Bougainville, 1837) – Philippines". This gives me two problems. #1. Philippine Lepidoptera show the author as Lesson, 1837. Then #2. In https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_butterflies_of_the_Philippines#Ny…... there is no mention of Danaus melanippus edmondii, but more than that, there is no mention of any Danaus sp. or ssp. However, I believe that as stated in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danaus_melanippus... this ssp. does exist in The Philippines and because the only distribution mentioned in this article is indeed The Philippines, this ssp. must be endemic here. Regarding the authorship, I can't find the root cause of the two contradictory opinions, but I have no doubt that there is an explanation.
Habitat:
Spotted visiting flowers in our backyard.
Notes:
To be fair to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_butterflies_of_the_Philippines#Ny…... they do state that the list is incomplete. I am just surprised that the entire genus Danaus is missing from the list. It is all very confusing. While preparing this spotting, I checked https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danaus_(butterfly).. I rather wish that I had not looked at it. There is a horrendous list of "synonyms, homonyms, rejected names, or invalid names". I suspect that the answer to my conundrum is lurking somewhere in this list, but that will have to wait for another day.
Comments (0)
Be the first to comment
Sign in to comment