Hypolycaena tora semanga

Hypolycaena tora semanga (Corbet, 1940)


♂, Yala, Thailand.		♂, Yala, Thailand. (photo by A.Giudici)

♂ genitalia, Yala, Thailand.

ON : Chliaria tora semanga Corbet, 1940
OD : Proc. R. ent. Soc. Lond. (B)9(5): 91.
TL : Perak, Selangor, Malay Peninsula. (NHML)

Distribution : P.Thailand (Satun ; Yala), Langkawi, W.Malaysia, Tioman.

Type Materials Information

Holotype ♂, Jan.-Feb.1890. Perak, Malay Peninsula. W.Doherty (NHML)
Allotype ♀, 28.May.1837. 'The Gap', Selangor, Malay Peninsula. C.F.Cowan (NHML)

Records taken from Literature

[ THAILAND ]
Suasa lisides suessa ; Ek-Amnuay,[2007] : 696, pl.318, figs.L378b♀,♀(Un). ('Than To')
Hypolycaena othona semanga ; Kimura et al.,2014 : 130, figs.♀,♀(Un). (Nam Tok Bolipat)
Hypolycaena othona semanga ; S.Sophonviwatkul, C.Sunthornwiphat & T.Laola,2020- : Butterflies of Thailand, figs. (Yala) (accessed: 2022.10.06)
Hypolycaena othona semanga ; Inayoshi,2020-2023 : Butterflies in Indo-China, figs.2♂. (Yala) (30.Nov.2023 last updated ; 30.Sep.2025 changed.)

Specimens Examined

[ THAILAND ]
Yala : 6♂ (incl. photo by S.Atdhabhan), (1♂ genitalia dissected).

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

Notes

The butterfly is uncommon in montane primary forests at moderate elevations (Alt. 600m). Males frequently come to the banks of streams and puddles to suck water.

The taxon was described by Corbet (1940) as a subspecies of tora, and was subsequently treated as a subspecies of othona by Eliot (1992). Šumpich & Weidenhoffer (2025) reassigned it as a subspecies of tora, and this decision seems to be correct when considering the male genitalia of both taxa. Thus, I follow them here.
Note that they only treated semanga Corbet, 1940 and phataea Fruhstorfer, 1914 as subspecies of tora. However, I believe it is reasonable to include all the following taxa in the Sundaland region as subspecies of tora: semanga Corbet, 1938 from P. Thailand, W. Malaysia; phataea Fruhstofer, 1914 from Sumatra; jiwabaruana Eliot, 1980 from Sipora Is.; minima H.H. Druce, 1895 from Borneo; waltraudae Treadaway & Nuyda, [1995] from Palawan; dendrobii Roepke, 1919 from Java and maruyamai Takanami,1989 from Sumbawa. Further taxonomic study is needed.

Literature

Corbet, A.S.,1940 : A revision of the Malayan species of Chliaria. (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae).
Proc. R. ent. Soc. Lond. (B)9(5): 90-92.

Seki, Y., Takanami, Y. & Otsuka, K.,1991 : In: Otsuka, K. (Ed.), Butterflies of Borneo. vol.2, No.1. Lycaenidae.
x + 139 pp (Japanese text), x + 113 pp (English text) + 1, 70 pls. Tobishima Corporation. Tokyo, Japan.

Eliot, J.N.,1992 : In: Corbet & Pendlebury, The Butterflies of the Malay Peninsula. (edn. 4).
Malayan Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur.

Šumpich, J. & Weidenhoffer, Z.,2025 : A review of the types of Lycaenidae species (Lepidoptera) described by Napoleon Manuel Kheil deposited in the collection of the National Museum of the Czech Republic.
Acta entomol. 65(1):177-195.


♂, Yala, Thailand. (photo by S.Atdhabhan)	♂, Yala, Thailand.

2025.09.30.