www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Hi all,

Was wondering if anyone could help with the species below please?

Many thanks!

Nige

Hi Nige,

There's a couple I need to look up, but these are my guesses at the others:

1. Myrina silenus
2. Myrina silenus
3. Belenois aurota
4. My guess is Euchrysops osiris
5. ?
6. Vanessa cardui
7. Tarucus rosaceus
8. ?
9. Ypthima asterope
10. Maybe Euchrysops osiris again
11. Colotis fausta
12. Colotis fausta
13. Junonia orithya

I love no.8. It looks like Freyeria or Chilades, sensu lato, but I've not come across that one before.

It's late here, so I'll take a look at the missing ones tomorrow.

Guy

EDIT:

5 is Colotis phisadia

8 is intriguing me!

That 8th one was really bugging me because I just couldn't place the genus, and the Lycaenide are my specialist group. So I started looking outside Oman and found Brephidium - a genus found in South Africa and the States ...

The western pygmy blue, Brephidium exile, (https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&s ... DBzUhFjHn8) is the spitting image - but that is an American butterfly. The South African species is not so similar.

It's close - but it can't be right, in Oman ...

Guy

Guy, a very similar specimen from Qatar has been defying the experts on Waarneming, one of whom suggested it looked like a Brephidium. See: http://forum.waarneming.nl/smf/index.php?topic=266790.0. Perhaps an American has been accidentally introduced to that area.

M.

Thanks Misha.

It seems Brephidium exilis (that seems to be the accepted spelling) has established itself in the Arabian Peninsula:

http://www.soceurlep.eu/tl_files/nota/b ... l.indd.pdf

Guy

Thank you very much both for your help on the IDs and for the links. I'm really gutted for not getting more photos and taken more note of the butterflies out there, was too busy looking after the kids!

Thanks again,

Nige

Forgot to say I have a couple of moths I need some help with, can I post them on here or is there somewhere else?

Thanks,

Nige