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1960
Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society
L55
NOTES ON SIAMESE TWINS OF PARTHENOS (NYMPHALIDjE)
by Julian N. Jumalon
Parthenos salentia Hopffer is a vigorous, active nymphalid always identified with the swampy places, or areas near streams. Fairly large, stout-bodied and conspicuous, it can easily be detected from the distance, due to a characteristic jerky, swift glide. Conspicuous too during its flight are the rows of large, close white spots banding the forewings from below the apex running downward toward the middle of the inner margins where the bands end with a large blotch of greenish-brown, which develops into a wider, black-smeared daub toward the center of the hind-wings, fusing with a broad black margin.
The writer had developed acquaintance with Parthenos salentia in Leyte, Samar, Zamboanga del Norte and Lanao in Mindanao, and also in Mindoro. During the University of San Carlos scientific expedition to Agusan-Surigao in 1958, our party found the swamps around Lake Mainit to be the metropolis of this lively nymph. Hundreds of them could be observed on sunny mornings romping from their abode in the pandanus grove toward the nearby wooded hills where we encountered them gamboling in twos or more, and more often, traveling alone up and down the slopes with great energy.
This butterfly was rather rare in Cebu before the war. A few years after liberation, a trickle of reports indicated that P. salentia had been seen at
156
Jumalon: Siamese Twins
Vol.14: no.2
several places in Cebu. Finally, an enthusiastic newcomer stumbled onto a swampy area about twelve kilometers north of the city where the butterfly found ideal conditions to thrive in abundance. Here, in one of his frequent visits, Albert Liao spied what appeared to be a couple of Parthenos salentia flying in coitu. The pair appeared to find it easiest to glide against gravity. Their flight from branch to branch was exceedingly taxing., With little effort, he took it on the wing, and found, to his amazement, that he was pinching two bodies joined at the thorax.
The specimen has two normal bodies with their usual complements of antennae and legs, but each body possesses only one fore- and one hind-wing, both of normal size. The bodies are joined by the sides of the thoraxes. The color of wings and markings are normal except for one of the two spots in the left hind-wing which is much smaller. The specimen when offered to the writer was mounted in a Riker frame. This was relaxed and set again to assume correct position of wings, and in so doing, one of the antennae was broken and glued back. The insect appeared to be several days old when caught. That, in its utter clumsiness in its flight it escaped predators, is surprising.
It was learned recently from observers that the place by the swamp had almost been depleted of its Parthenos by high school children who frequented it in the past three years. This butterfly is however spreading over a wide area in this island-province, and its foothold here is undoubtedly permanent.
University of San Carlos, Cebu City, PHILIPPINES
ANT EOS CLORINDE NIVIFERA (PIERIDjE) IN COLORADO
On the first of September, 1960, Mr. John Justice of Denver wrote to me and reported the capture of a second specimen of this tropical pierid in the Denver region. The first capture is referred to on p.388 of Colorado Butterflies (Brown, Eff, Rotger, 1957).
I quote here from Mr. Justice's letter: "On August 29, 1960 I captured a white angled sulphur butterfly. The location was near the place where the highway to Boulder leaves the Valley Highway, just north of Denver, in Adams County [Westminster, Adams Co.]. I found the butterfly in a bed of zinnias and caught it while it was sipping nectar from a red zinnia . . . The wing span is just over 3!/2 inches [the earlier specimen measured 3% inches]. . . . The wings are only slightly rubbed, but they are chipped in four places . . . "
This summer I have noticed subtropical nomads several times in Colorado. During July Phcebis eubule was seen twice during the second week near Ouray, Ouray Co. During August both Phcebis eubule and Ascia mon-uste were in our garden at Fountain Valley School, near Colorado Springs, El Paso Co. The former has been seen two or three times a week and the latter on August 27th.
F. Martin Brown, Fountain Valley School, Colorado Springs, Colo., U. S. A.