Pirdana hyela major  Evans, 1932
Pirdana hyela major ♂ Up. Pirdana hyela major ♂ Un. Pirdana hyela major ♀ Up. Pirdana hyela major ♀ Un.
♂, 1993.03.08. Nan, Thailand. ♀, Nan, Thailand.
Pirdana hyela major ♀ Up. Pirdana hyela major ♀ Un. Pirdana hyela major ♂ genitalia Pirdana hyela major ♂ genitalia
♀, Nan, Thailand. ♂ genitalia, Nan, Thailand.

ON : Pirdana ismene major Evans, 1932
OD : Ident. Indian Butts. (2nd ed.) : 387, pl.32, fig.79.1,♀(Un).
TL : Sikkim. (♂, NHML)
Distribution : Sikkim, Assam, N.Myanmar, N.Thailand (Nan),
Laos, N. to C.Vietnam.
● ssp.major
● ssp.rudolphii
Pirdana hyela major map
Records taken from Literature

[ LAOS ]
Pirdana hyela rudolphii ; Masui & Uehara,1997 : 6, 5, figs.24,♂,♂(Un),♀,♀(Un). (Saravan)
Pirdana hyela rudolphii ; Osada, Uemura & Uehara,1999 : 224, pl.141, figs.♂,♀. (Lak Sao; Savannakhet; Thateng)
Pirdana hyela rudolphii ; Nimura & Wakahara,2005 : 49. (Namdhua)
Pirdana hyela rudolphii ; Nakamura & Wakahara,2012 : 59.
Pirdana hyela rudolphii ; Onodera,2022 : 119, pl.256, figs.♂,♂(Un). (Bolikhamxai: Phon Si)

[ VIETNAM ]
Pirdana hyela rudolphii ; Devyatkin & Monastyrskii,1999 : 173. (Bach Ma)
Pirdana hyela rudolphii ; Ikeda et al.,2001b : 66, figs.4:6,♂,7,♂(Un),5:33(♂genitalia). (Cuc Phuong)
Pirdana hyela rudolphii ; Luong et al.,2004 : 15, 90, figs.♂,♂(Un). (Cuc Phuong)
Pirdana hyela ; Monastyrskii et al.,2006 : 45. (Thua Thien Hue: A Luoi ; Bach Ma)
Pirdana hyela rudolphii ; Monastyrskii & Devyatkin,2015 : 82. (N / C / 'S')

Specimens Examined

[ THAILAND ]
Nan : 1♂ 2♀.
Pua dist. 1993.03.08, LC. (YI).
JanFebMarAprMayJun JulAugSepOctNovDec


[ VIETNAMD ]
Thua Thien Hue : 1♂ 1♀.
JanFebMarAprMayJun JulAugSepOctNovDec

Da Nang : 1♂.
JanFebMarAprMayJun JulAugSepOctNovDec

Quang Ngai : 1♂ 1♀.
JanFebMarAprMayJun JulAugSepOctNovDec

Lam Dong : 1♂.
JanFebMarAprMayJun JulAugSepOctNovDec

Notes

The butterfly is uncommon in montane forests at moderate elevations.
Chiba & Tukiyama (1993:22) treated the population from Chiang Mai, N.Thailand as ssp.major. They also considered the specimens from Ranong, peninsular Thailand to be ssp.major and the transitional form to ssp.rudolphii. However, the specimens in Thailand are very variable, but size and male genitalia are the same as rudolphii. I therefore treat all populations from Thailand except Nan as ssp.rudolphii.
On the other hand, populations from Nan, Laos and north to central Vietnam are much larger than ssp.rudolphii and have a slightly different valva of the male genitalia. I tentatively treat these as ssp.major. However, in central Vietnam, both subspecies appear to occur together and it is possible that they are separate species. Further taxonomic and distributional studies are needed.

Literature

Evans, W.H.,1932 : The identification of Indian butterflies. second edition revised.
Bombay nat. Hist. Soc., Madras : 10+454pp, 32 pls, 9f.

Chiba, H. & Tsukiyama, H.,1993 : A review of the Genus Pirdana Distant (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae)
Butterflies 6:19-25.

2023.09.30.
A Check list of Butterflies in Indo-China, Chiefly from THAILAND, LAOS & VIETNAM. Copyright © 1996- Y.Inayoshi.