Subject: Butterfly
Geographic location of the bug: Taiwan
Date: 05/11/2018
Time: 04:04 PM EDT
Your letter to the bugman: Hi, I was wondering if you could help me identify this butterfly.
How you want your letter signed: Thanks! Libbi
Dear Libbi,
When we checked our emailed identification requests, we found 16 requests from you. We are impressed with your enthusiasm, but that is nearly a week’s worth of postings for us so we will slowly answer as many of your requests as possible, but we also have additional requests from other readers. Your butterfly is in the Milkweed Butterfly subfamily Danainae as indicated in this Butterflies of Taiwan page and Taiwan News has an unidentified image of numerous individuals. It might be a Blue Tiger, Tirumala limniace limniace, which is pictured on My Butterfly Collection. According to Encyclopedia of Life, the range is “South Asia and Southeast Asia. Also found in numbers in Queensland (at least as far south as Mackay, but also recorded in Brisbane) Australia.” An even closer visual match is the Ceylon Blue Glassy Tiger, Ideopsis similis, which is pictured on FlickR and is also found in Taiwan according to this FlickR posting. According to the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department Hong Kong site, it is found in Taiwan and is called the Blue Glassy Tiger. According to Encyclopedia of Life: “The Ceylon Blue Glassy Tiger (Ideopsis similis) is a butterfly found in Asia, including India and Taiwan.” Our money is on the latter of these similar, related species.