Paintbrush Swift?

[Tony Moore]

Found this, this morning. It was a big beastie - 45/50mm wingspan - and the forewing long, sharp and narrow. Maybe too big for Paintbrush or Philippine Swift. The books suggest that these Swifts can only be confidently separated by genital dissection, but I thought it worth a post - especially considering the weather forecasts emanating from the UK presently. .

Tony M.

[Chris Jackson]

Hi Tony,
Thanks for showing us your photos. Here in Europe, its getting colder day by day.
Chris

[Padfield]

The size rather deters me from thinking it is the paintbrush swift. I know some of the Caltoris species have wingspans of about 4.5 cm (from measuring pictures in my books) but others are smaller - and I haven't got pictures of the particular Philippine species to measure. If it is big enough, Caltoris bromus looks a good bet.

Someone really does need to produce an affordable reference book to the butterflies of this part of the world! I recently acquired an excellent guide to the buterflies of the South Pacific and New Zealand, and ages ago bought comprehensive guides to Australia and India - but South-East Asia is much more expensive!

Keep posting!

Guy

[Tony Moore]

Thanks, Guy,

As I noted in my 'Another biggy' post, I think I was a little ambitious sizewise (ugh! horrible!), with this one. 36/38mm would have been nearer the mark. Apologies...

Tony.