There
are 3 recorded subspecies of The Knight in Malaysia and Singapore.
The Singapore subspecies, designated parkeri after Norman Parker
who discovered it in Singapore in the early 70's, has the hindwings broadly
laved with pale mauve. The Malaysian mainland spubspecies, malayana
has reddish-brown hindwings. Compare the two photos and the difference
is clear.
The Knight is not uncommon, and
individuals are often encountered in the nature reserves. The
forewing apex is strongly whitened in the males but reddish brown in the
females. It was postulated by Col JN Eliot that the parkeri
subspecies may spread into Johore and, as a result hybridise with the subspecies
malayana. However, we have not observed this phenomenon to
have happened yet. A sample of specimens obtained near Desaru in
eastern Johor all yielded the malayana subspecies.
However, on the Singapore side, the reverse seems to have occured, as specimens of malayana subspecies have been captured at Pulau Tekong recently (in 2001/2002), where they co-existed with the parkeri subspecies. Specimens of intermediate variations between the two subspecies were also taken at Pulau Tekong and Pulau Ubin.
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