Identifying butterflies to genus level
Hi All,
I've just joined the Project after chatting to Tony Rebelo. I've been doing more and more identifications since last year's City Nature Challenge (CNC), and the Great Southern Bioblitz (GSB). This year I was 'volunteered' (read - press ganged like Lepsoc used to do to people!) by Suvarna Parbhoo to champion the eThekwini 2023 CNC. To make identifications easier and quicker to do I 'followed' South Africa as a place, and chose 'Taxon' = Papilionoidea. I now get daily emails whenever someone uploads a butterfly in SA. Wow there are a lot.
One thing I've noticed that can slow things down is difficult-to-identify species. Some are just plain impossible, like Leptotes pirithous-babaulti-jeanneli-brevidentatus. iNaturalist has helped here by creating a 'species complex' called 'Complex Leptotes pirithous (Common Blue Complex)' (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?taxon_id=1068886) that we can use to confirm it to this level. 'Research Grade' can be forced at this level when identifying by going to the bottom of the data quality assessment and ticking the 'No, it's as good as it can be' box under 'Based on the evidence, can the Community Taxon still be confirmed or improved?'
The Leptotes complex is not the only group of butterflies that can give problems. Some of them, like the Borbo Swifts, get as far as a genus level identification then stick there. For those, I suggest we find the best expert on them and ask them to 'Follow' the genus and do IDs as they crop up. If you can't get past the genus, don't worry. Tag someone like Andy Mayer or Johan Greyling.
Other genera can defy even the most expert identifiers, and 'stick' at the genus ID forever. But a Species Complex won't work, because some members of the genus CAN be told apart. I've recently seen some very worn lycaenids, which are clearly Deudorix from the hindwing tail and anal lobe, but only the underside has been photographed and the uploader didn't even get a look at the upperside, let alone get a photo. And the underside markings have been worn down to grey smudges. I suggest that these should be left at 'genus = Deudorix', and we can tick the 'No, it's as good as it can be' box so at least a genus level ID is Research grade. The same might go for seriously worn Aloeides, where wings-open shots are rare and the hindwings become simply a brown mush.
Which brings me to a real challenge - Afrogegenes. Here we have three taxa, A. letterstedti, A. ocra and A. hottentota. The females are like Leptotes - only worse. The authors of the paper describing the new genus (and raising A.ocra to species status) admit that they are impossible to distinguish at the genitalic level. And no DNA work was done. The separation of A.ocra from the rest was done on what some believe to be shaky grounds (a single specimen and no DNA) and the degree of yellow on a male upperside is extremely variable and doesn't necessarily confirm that it's A. ocra and not A. letterstedti. The only butterfly in this genus that can be identified without any doubt is the upperside of a male Afrogegenes hottentota, from the conspicuous black forewing upperside sex brand. The undersides of the three species are of no help because they all look the same.
We can't ask iNaturalist to create a Community Taxon called 'Complex Afrogegenes letterstedti (Brown Dodger Complex)' because that would not be helpful for genuine Afrogegenes hottentota records. So what to do?
I suggest we only have two identification taxa. 'Afrogegenes hottentota' for an unambiguous male upperside, and 'Genus = Afrogegenes' for everything else. If it's a female or an underside only we can force Research Grade using the 'No, it's as good as it can be' box, otherwise for male uppersides just leave it as it is for the day when the genus is finally resolved.
I should add that we should take care when ticking that box and only do so when it's absolutely clear that no improvement on the Community Taxon is possible. Tony told me that it misbehaves if you say it cannot be ID’d further and then someone else does ID It further...
Your thoughts please...
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