Language: English
With this contribution a further part of a survey of Philippine butterflies is presented which is part of the series Butterflies of the World for which several treatise of the Philippine series have already been published. The purpose of this treatise is to introduce the Euploea of the Philippine Islands as an illustrated checklist. All the butterflies depicted are from the author's collection apart from one lectotype (a male Euploea phaenareta althaea) and one paralectotype (a female Euploea phaenareta althaea) from the Semper Collection in the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt am Main, All specimens illustrated, both males and females, are shown lifesize. From one up to 15 examples per subspecies are shown, in colour, depending on breadth of individual variation for a subspecies as well as to compare, where it seems pertinent, the appearance of the same subspecies occurring on different islands.
In the outline given for each species, the secondary sex characteristics of the males where they occur are briefly covered. Information concerning habitat and habit are based primarily on the author's numerous expeditions (from 1953-2004) to the Philippines. For each taxon a short description of the key points of differences between various subspecies of each given species in the Philippines is provided. Also given for each species and subspecies are the island distribution within the Philippines primarily based on the Revised Checklist of the Butterflies of the Philippine Islands (Lepidoptera: Rhopalocera) Treadaway & Schroeder, 2012. There are five subspecies (one from each of five different species) primarily from the Sulu Archipelago that have not been illustrated. These are E. phaenareta grandis Moore, 1883 from Jolo, E. swainson duplex Hulstaert, 1931 from Bazilan, E. sylvester bazilana Frustorfer, 1900 and E. midamus hypaspistes Fruhstorfer, all three from Bazilan and E. blossomae hilogensis Yamamoto & Takei, 1992 from N.E. Mindanao. A map of the Philippines is provided showing the names of the larger and medium-sized islands as well as a few of the smaller islands where rare butterflies have been obtained.