Curetis metayei

Curetis metayei Inoué & Kawazoé, 1965


♂, 1960.04.03, Dinh Quan, Dong Nai, Vietnam. Paratype (photo by K.Saito)		♀, 1961.01.29, Trang Bom, Bien Hoa, Vietnam. Paratype (photo by K.Saito)

♂, Lam Dong, Vietnam. (photo by K.Saito)		♂, Lam Dong, Vietnam. (photo by K.Saito)

♂, Khammouan, Laos. (photo by H.Onodera)		♀, Bolikhamxai, Laos. (photo by K.Saito)

♀, Khammouan, Laos. (photo by H.Onodera)		♀, Bolikhamxai, Vietnam. (photo by H.Onodera)

♂, 1962.03.25, Dinh Quan, Dong Nai, Vietnam. Paratype (photo by K.Saito)		♂ genitalia, Lam Dong, Vietnam. (photo by K.Saito)

ON : Curetis tonkina metayei Inoué & Kawazoé, 1965
OD : Nature Life Southeast Asia 4:343-345.
figs.51(HT,♂).52(HT,♂Un),53(PT,♀),54(PT,♀Un).
TL : Dinh Quan, Dong Nai, S.Vietnam. (♂)

Distribution : N.E.Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam.

Type Materials Information

Holotype ♂, 25.Mar.1962. Dinh Quan, Dong Nai, S.Vietnam.
Paratypes ( 2♂ 1♀) :
1♂, 03.Apr.1960. Dinh Quan, Dong Nai. S.Inoue leg. (examined) ; 1♂, 25.Feb.[Mar.].1962. Dinh Quan, Dong Nai, S.Inoue leg. (examined) ;
1♀, 29.Jan.1961. Trang Bom, de Bien Hoa. S.Inoue leg. (examined)

Records taken from Literature

[ THAILAND ]
Curetis metayei ; Kimura et al.,2014 : 47, figs.♂,♂(Un),♂,♂(Un). (Phu Khiewo)

[ LAOS ]
Curetis santana ssp. ; Motono & Negishi,1989 : 77, pl.109, figs.A9,♂,A10,♂(Un). ("Luang Prabang; Pakse; Nam Moh; Vang Vieng")
Curetis santana malayica ; Osada, Uémura & Uehara,1999 : 219. pl.129, fig.♀. (Lak Sao) (in part)

[ CAMBODIA ]
Curetis sp. ; Morishita,1978 : 12,14, fig.24,♂,♂(Un). (Cambodia)
Curetis sperthis metayei ; Eliot,1990 : 223, 208, fig.14(♂,genitalia). (Cambodia)

[ VIETNAM ]
Curetis sp. ; Morishita,19780 : 12,14, fig.24,♂,♂(Un). (S)
Curetis sperthis metayei ; Eliot,1990 : 224, 208, fig.14(♂,genitalia). (Vietnam)
Curetis santana malayica ; Miyazaki, Saito & Saito,2007c : 40, fig.L-159,♀. (Lam Dong: Dambri)
Curetis metayei ; Monastyrskii & Devyatkin,2015 : 48. (S)

Specimens Examined

[ LAOS ]
Bolikhamxai : 2♂ 2♀ (incl.photo by H.Onodera).

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Khammouan : 3♂ 3♀ (photo by H.Onodera).

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

[ VIETNAM ]
Khanh Hoa : 1♀.
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Lam Dong : 1♂ 1♀.
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Dong Nai : 2♂ 2♀ (incl.Paratypes).
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Notes

The butterfly is locally not rare in montane forest at low to moderate elevations.
The species was described as subspecies of tonkina. Eliot,1990 regarded metayei as subspecies of sperthis. Afterwards, Kimura et al.,2014 treated it as an independent species due to the differences of markings and male genitalia.
It is quite similar to sympatric bulis, but small in size, termen of male forewing is straight and the post discal striae in space 4 and 5 on the underside of both wing remarkably step out toward termen. But some examples of bulis have almost same markings, therefore needs to examine the genitalia.
Female specimen in Osada, Uémura & Uehara,1999 shown as Curetis santana malayica is considered to be this taxon. Further taxonomic study and distributional research are needed.

Literature

Inoué, S. & Kawazoé, A.,1965 : Riodinidae, Curetidae and Lycaenidae (Lepidoptera : Rhopalocera) from South Viet-Nam.
Nature and Life in Southeast Asia 4 : 317-394, 19 pls.

Morishita, K.,1978 : Curetis acuta and its allies.
Yadoriga 93/94:3-17. (in Japanese)

Eliot, J.N.,1990 : Notes on the Genus Curetis Hübner (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae)
Trans. lepid. Soc. Japan 41(4):201-225.

1999.05.24 - 2022.08.31.