“the smallest butterfly” is a topic that has been discussed on the group before. I don’t have the emails saved but may be you can dig them up. I will only state that there are several opinions about it.
________________________________ From: Parag Rangnekar <[email protected]> Reply-To: butterflyindia <[email protected]> Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2010 23:33:52 -0500 To: butterflyindia <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [ButterflyIndia] Grass Jewel Thanks KK. Based on your description, the species that I have seen in Goa is without any doubt putli. Thanks once again. By the way, which is the smallest?? regards Parag Rangnekar "Man is but a small strand in the web of life, what he does to the web he does to himself....." ________________________________ From: "Kunte, Krushnamegh" <[email protected]> To: butterflyindia <[email protected]> Sent: Thu, November 18, 2010 5:40:26 AM Subject: Re: [ButterflyIndia] Grass Jewel Parag, both species are found in S. India. See the email (pasted below) sent to the group some time ago. I am also resending the pictures. -- Krushnamegh Kunte, PhD Post-doctoral Research Fellow FAS Center for Systems Biology Harvard University 52 Oxford St Northwest Lab Room 458.40-3 Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. Ph: (617) 496-0078 Cell: (512) 577-1370 Fax: (617) 495-2196 Email: [email protected] Other emails: [email protected], [email protected] Personal website: http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~kunte/index.htm Indian Foundation for Butterflies: http://ifoundbutterflies.org/ Google profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/krushnamegh ________________________________ From: Parag Rangnekar <[email protected]> Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2010 03:54:36 -0500 To: butterflyindia <[email protected]> Subject: [ButterflyIndia] Grass Jewel Hi, The Grass Jewel found in Goa and South India is Freyeria trochylus or putli?? regards Parag Rangnekar "Man is but a small strand in the web of life, what he does to the web he does to himself....." ------ Forwarded Message From: <[email protected]> Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:29:00 -0500 To: butterflyindia <[email protected]> Subject: [ButterflyIndia] Grass Jewels (Freyeria trochylus and putli) hello all, JM Garg's butterfly in question is Chilades putli (the Eastern Grass Jewel). see the attached for difference between this species and Chilades trochylus (the Grass Jewel). in trochylus (the two pictures to the right in the attached file) the tornal spots on the upper side are prominently orange-crowned, and the marginal spots on the underside have extensive orange borders. in putli (the picture on the left), the upper side has no orange and the extent of orange on the underside is highly reduced. the picture of trochylus given in isaac's recent book (p. 262) is a misidentification: it is actually putli. isaac's entire "Status" and "H&H" sections for trochylus, in fact, belong to putli, not trochylus. putli is extensively distributed in india and the oriental region while trochylus is mostly an african species that penetrates into the indian subcontinent but isn't as common or widespread. most of the grass jewel pictures you would find in indian books or on the web are putli. Evans treated putli as a subspecies of trochylus and, following Gaonkar's Western Ghats butterfly checklist, i had also lumped it under trochylus in my various previous publications and web-pages. however, following most other recent authors, who treat putli as a species distinct from trochylus, i will be treating putli separately in my upcoming books. note that i have used Chilades rather than Freyeria, with which most of you are familiar for these two species. this change is following Larsen's text for putli from Butterflies of Bangladesh (p. 70): "It was previously known in the combination Freyeria trochylus putli, but the generic name is invalid and C. putli is specifically distinct from C. trochylus...". larsen includes putli under Chilades. i will be writing more about these two species in my upcoming systematic catalog of indian butterflies but i hope that the above information clarifies the issue for everyone. let me know if any confusion still lingers. cheers, At 8:56 PM +0530 11/25/08, raju kasambe wrote: Dear Sir, The difference is significant. I think Isaac or KK will be the right person to comment now. It is indeed a great catch. Regards, Raju On 11/17/08, J.M. Garg <[email protected]> wrote: Thanks, Raju ji, Doesn't seem to match with pictures of Freyeria putli at http://www.malaeng.com/blog/?p=4323 On Sun, Nov 16, 2008 at 10:09 PM, raju kasambe <[email protected]> wrote: Dear Sir, I think this might be the Freyeria putli, the nearest species of Grass Jewel (Freyeria trochylus). Please confirm. Regards, Raju On 11/14/08, J.M. Garg <[email protected]> wrote: Grass Jewel (Freyeria trochylus)- a variation? On 181008 in Narshapur forest around 80 Km. from Hyderabad, AP. -- With regards, J.M.Garg "We often ignore the beauty around us" Creating Awareness about Indian Flora & Fauna:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jmgarg1 For learning about our trees & plants, please visit/ join Google e-group (Indiantreepix) http://groups.google.co.in/group/indiantreepix?hl=en -- Enjoy
