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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
There seems to be something of a shortage on TN of butterflies from the genus Curetis. As I had two encounters with Curetis acuta in Japan, one of which enabled some pictures, I thought this might be of interest. In any event, females of this genus are much more infrequent in casual encounters by lepidopterists.
I literally stumbled upon this female insect late afternoon in Dogo Park, Matsuyama. It was late November, quite cool, and she clearly had very little energy. Just enough to walk slowly across the road. This accounts for the long shadow and the tarmac BG!
To save her from being run over or trodden on, my wife was able to get the butterfly onto her hand for warmth and after about 30 seconds the butterfly had recovered enough to flutter off into a maple tree. I doubt this slightly battle-scarred insect had much longer to live but it was good to see some spirit in her.
Another angle is shown in a workshop, resting on a finger.
The Lycaenid sub-family Curetinae contains just the single genus Curetis and this is widely but thinly spread over a large part of Asia. Males are invariably colored coper and black on the upperside while females are usually white and brown/grey. Underneath, both sexes are shiny silver with many small tiny dots and crescents. The underside is shown in a workshop photo.
Curetis acuta was originally described by Moore, 1877, from China. In "Butterflies of the Oriental Region, Part III", Bernard D'Abrera list subspecies formosana from Taiwan and naga from Assam, but makes no reference to its occurrence in Japan. Yokoyama and Wakabayashi, in "Coloured Illustrations of The Butterflies of Japan" list paracuta, de Niceville, as the Japanese representative. As D'Abrera used, almost exclusively, the London collection for his work, it is possible that the collection in BMNH has no specimens from Japan. |
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