Back to album

Better ID - _TNY_1811

I have posted shots of this species before and incorrectly identified it as a tropical milkweed butterfly (Lycorea halia cleobaea), also known as the tiger mimic-queen.

 

That "mimic" part is important. When digging a little deeper today it turns out that L. halia has a black thorax with white spots which this (and the other ones I've photographed) haven't.

 

This is in fact the species which the mimic-queen mimics - the orange-spotted tiger clearwing (Mechanitis polymnia), aka the disturbed tigerwing.

 

Doing an Google image search turns up plenty of other photos which misidentify these (both ways) so at least I am not alone.

 

As for being the disturbed tigerwing, this particular one certainly wasn't easily disturbed. It was one if the first ones I shot at a visit to the Haga Ocean butterfly house - and one of the last at closing time two hours later when it was still in the exact same position.

831 views
28 faves
45 comments
Uploaded on February 17, 2023
Taken on February 17, 2023