Lepidoptera

[brontodocus]

What an awesome and huge caterpillar model! Now to find one...

[bmathison1972]

Adult and larva of the royal moth, Citheronia regalis. I made the larva and Jetoar made the adult. Both roughly 1:1.

[Jetoar]

Their looks really nice toguether  .

[AcroSauroTaurus]

I'm obviously not an insect collector.
My Butterflies/Moths

Figures:
2002 Bandai small Mothra
Random China butterfly

[bmathison1972]

Toy Major Butterflies

Review of Butterflies produced by Toy Major in 1996. OK, butterfly sets have been made multiple times. Club Earth did a set, Safari LTD did at least three (Collectors Case, Authentics, TOOB), K&M did a tube, US Toy did a small set, and I have figures from sets not attributable to manufacturers.

All of these below are marked 'TM' and '1996'. They have letters on the underside, but the letters are duplicated and not just on a figure of the same sculpt. Makes me wonder if TM produced two sets of 12 in 1996. I probably bought these in the early 2000s and honestly cannot remember where I bought them. My numbering below is random and not how the figures are marked or marketed.

Because they were not marketed as specific species (to my knowledge) the identifications are all mine. Several are based on the Club Earth set (these companies all had habit of copying one another) but many are from my deductions, often by using 'The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Butterfly World' by Paul Smart in conjunction with Google searches.

I am sure these are not all the best identifications possible. If anyone has a better idea, PLEASE SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS. If anything, I hope this thread will initiate discussion on these and other figures...

Several factors were taken into consideration when making an ID. Shape and color were the big ones, but sometimes you have to 'read between the lines' and note that a prominent color on the figure might be a minor accent on the real thing. Think of it this way, if some painted a toy zebra, the way it was painted could determine if it appeared to be white with black stripes or black with white stripes. So, at times you have to be creative and try to get into the mind of the artist.

Papilionidae (swallowtails)

1. eastern tiger swallowtail, Papilio glaucus. This is a fairly safe determination given that this species has been made several times before.

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2. anise swallowtail, Papilio zelicaon. Based on the color, this could be several things (the Old World swallowtail, P. xuthus, is another possibility). I chose this one namely because it was also made by Club Earth.

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3. nobile swallowtail, Papilio nobilis. I am not happy with this ID, but I couldn't find another tailed species with a pale orange-brown base color.

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4. purple-spotted swallowtail, Graphium weiskei. This figure pops up in toy form now and then, including by Club Earth.

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5. pipevine swallowtail, Battus philenor. While these colors are clearly those of the pipevine swallowtail, they are the colors of the underside of the organism. Like adding or removing tails, painting the venter on the dorsum is also not unheard-of with toy butterflies... Beam did a larva of this species.

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6. Cairns birdwing, Ornithoptera euphorion. This is generic enough it might represent any one of a few birdwings, but Cairns was also made by Club Earth (as well as by Cadbury-Yowies).

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Nymphalidae (brush-footed butterflies).

7. monarch, Danaus plexippus. This is the most-commonly made species of butterfly and its ID cannot be in question here, either.

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8. queen, Danaus gilippus. This figure could also represent the tropic queen, D. eresimus, but I thought the queen was the more logical choice. The unbranded caterpillar sets include a larva of this species.

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9. red admiral, Vanessa atalanta. A distinctive shape and color, this species was also made by Bullyland and Skillcraft. Surprisingly, neither this species nor the mourning cloak (next) were made by Club Earth.

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10. mourning cloak, Nymphalis antiopa. A distinctive species and possibly a unique figure!

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11. Large tortoiseshell, Nymphalis polychloros. I waffled back-and-forth with this one. At first I thought it was a Papilio or Graphium without tails (but the shape in general never sat right with me). Adding tails where they shouldn't be, or removing them when they should be there, is not unheard of among toys (Safari added tails to both its Morpho peleides and Idea leucone in their Collectors Case). I then started looking at Polygonia and Nymphalis and suspected the spots on the wings were just painted as continuous stripes...


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12. purple emperor, Apatura iris. Not as realistic as its Club Earth counterpart.

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13. red glider, Cymothoe sangaris. This predates, and is a much better example of, the figure by Safari LTD for their Butterfly TOOB.

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14. Graecian shoemaker, Catonephele numilia. Very similar to its Club Earth counterpart (I do not think I would have ever figured this one out if CE hadn't made one!).

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15. Menelaus morpho, Morpho menelaus. Generic at the genus level, I chose this species as it's commonly made (the Club Earth species clearly represents M. cypris).

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16. large true forester, Euphaedra sarcoptera. I am not happy with this ID but it is a best fit for the underside (again) of E. sarcoptera. There just are not many species incorporating pink and green with black spots.

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Pieridae (whites, sulfurs, orangetips)

17. southern dogface, Zerene cesonia. This might represent something else but I think this is the best match (plus it's one of my favorite leps). K&M did one for their Butterflies tube. Interestingly, the only pierid in this set!

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Lycaenidae (gossamer-winged butterflies)

18. crowned hairstreak, Evenus coronata. Being from Arizona, I always associated this figure and others like it with the great purple hairstreak (Atlides halesus) but E. coronata was made by Club Earth and others and this seems to be the species of this morphotype...

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19. coral jewel, Hypochrysops miskini. I bounced around several lycaenids but finally settled on this one. This could easily be assigned to other species if you guys have a preference for your own collections...

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20. Genoveva azure, Ogyris Genoveva. Again, not the best example but it corresponds to the Club Earth figure.

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21. small copper, Lycaena phlaeus var. schmedtii. I bounced around a few Lycaena species (including L. gorgona) but finally settled on this one.

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Riodinidae (metalmarks)

22. Cramer's mesene, Mesene phareus. This does not seen to be a great representative of this species, but it is in-line with the Club Earth Figure (and a good example why the target species may not be immediately recognizable).

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UNASSIGNED
These last two I am just not comfortable with:

23. This is probably a color variant of Graphium weiskei (above)—just not many options utilizing pink, green, and white.

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24. I am really stumped here. I was hoping the pink spots would be an indicator but I cannot find anything like it.

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[bmathison1972]

edit: upon further examination of other figures, I am pretty sure now #23 is indeed a variant of Graphium weiskei. That there are two version of this species, in combination with duplicated numbering systems, makes me think there were two sets of 12 rather than one large set of 24.

[brontodocus]

Hi Blaine – and sorry for being late again... Wow, some of these figures can really give a headache when you try to identify them. Of course, I'd mostly agree with the ids you gave here, anyways. No. 11 puzzles me quite a bit. Nymphalis polychloros is a possible id but the colours don't really match and I think it may be meant to represent a different nymphalid (although currently I'm not able to tell which) or possibly even Dodona adonira (Riodinidae) which still is far from being an exact match. However, I think it most likely is meant to represent a nymphalid even though at the moment I fail to find a better contender. The green markings and lack of red dots of No. 12 confuse me. It may be meant to represent Apatura iris or another member of Apaturinae but there seems to be so much artistic license that it makes an exact id difficult. Oh, and of course I'll try to keep up with everything else you posted during the last week but... oh wow, it looks like it's been more like a year! Well, of course it'll take some time to catch up with everything but I'll do my best.

[BlueKrono]

My flying butter

[brontodocus]

Yujin Paper Kite & chrysalis images are back.

[bmathison1972]

Walk-around of the larva of the Asian swallowtail, Papilio xuthus Linnaeus, 1767, by Kaiyodo - Sofubi Toy Box, No. 007, new for 2017. This figure was released early this year and has already been discontinued, so grab one while you can.

The species is common in much of Asia, from Japan to India, also the Hawaiian Islands. The figure has been made several times, including another caterpillar by Kaiyodo (Capsule Q Museum - Caterpillars), and adults by Bandai (Bugs Museum; Insect Science), Kabaya (World Insects Series I), and Rement. See the last image for comparisons with the Capsule Q caterpillar and the Insect Science adult.

The figure. WOW. It measures 23 cm long. Assuming the Capsule Q Museum version is 1:1, that makes this figure 4:1 (although it seems much bigger - someone can confirm my math if they want). The figure, unlike others in this series, is solid piece with no moving parts.

I have updated BOTD to reflect thus guy as well!

On to the pics:

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[brontodocus]

What an absolutely awesome model! Even the spiracles are sculpted! I think most medium-sized Papilio species have caterpillars growing to around 45 to 55 mm or so, so the scale seems resonabe (although I don't have data about larva sizes for P. xuthus so I'm just guessing).

[bmathison1972]

I have recaptured these images!

[bmathison1972]

Walk-around of the caterpillar of the puss moth, Cerura vinula (Linnaeus, 1758) by Sun Wai Toys. This species occurs throughout much of Europe, temperate Asia to China, and northern Africa.

A little history about this figure. I found it a few years ago, randomly online on Archie McPhee's novelty website when doing various Google searches for 'toy insects'. The first one was actually lost in the mail (quite possibly stolen from my front porch--that happened a couple times during that period), and was replaced free-of-charge by Archie McPhee. I knew nothing about the figure, but to find a toy of such an interesting and distinctive caterpillar, I had to have one. I didn't realize how interesting this figure was to other people. I have had a few private messages asking where to get one, and even a couple people practically begging me to sell them mine! This ranks up with my Imperial Toys walking stick as a real treasure!

I think Sun Wai made at least a sphinx moth caterpillar as well. Sun Wai figures, at least the few arthropods I have, are larger, yet detailed novelty-style. Most are fairly realistic (although their lobster looks like a mashup of a Maine and spiny lobster...)

Like many of the Sun Wai toys, the figure is large and a soft, hollow plastic. The figure measures roughly 225 mm (not including the caudal appendages), making it nearly 3:1 for an average caterpillar (although its stature makes it appear so much bigger). It is surprisingly detailed for what amounts to a novelty toy.

On to the pics:

[bmathison1972]

Walk-around of the atlas moth, Attacus atlas (Linnaeus, 1758) by Kaiyodo, Capsule Q Animatales - Yaeyama, No. 302 (2014). The atlas moth is one of the largest species of moths and occurs in southeast Asia to the Malay Archipelago. This figure was released as part of one of several sets specializing in specific locations in Japan, in this case the Yaeyama Islands of Okinawa. This is the only atlas moth that was released by a major commercial manufacturer. Jetoar made one for his 'Amazing Moths' line (which I have, of course) and I also have a magnet figurine from Doug Walpus Art Studio.

This figure is, well, probably the best moth figure out there. Actually, the entire Yaeyama set had an amazing species arrangement of superb quality (five of them can be seen here: http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~CH2M-NITU/japananimal7e.htm)! Due to the angle of the wings, it is difficult to measure (and frankly, difficult to image), but taking into account the width of each forewing and the thorax, I have it at a 90 mm wingspan, making it just under 1:3 for a large specimen. Assembly is required and it is a delicate figure, so care should be taken. It's been three years since I assembled mine, so I do not remember the number of pieces. The paint job is exquisite and the 'eyes' on the wings are translucent!

I am surprised I have not done a walk-around of this one before! This figure comes highly-recommended for anyone that might collect insect figures (even if it is not your focus). They still show up on eBay periodically so they are not impossible to find.

On to the pics!!!

[Beetle guy]

Nice Blaine,

Just recently I bought this one, and a bunch of other Yujin and Kaiyodo butterflies and caterpillars.
I never collected butterflies but, even not a completist, wanted to have the Yujin and Kaiyodo insects complete. Little more to go ;-)

[brontodocus]

This is one of my favourite CapsuleQ figures! One of the rare occasions I intentionally bought a figure twice (yes, I also bought doubles unintentionally, but that's a bit more embarassing...).

[Beetle guy]

This is one of my favourite CapsuleQ figures! One of the rare occasions I intentionally bought a figure twice (yes, I also bought doubles unintentionally, but that's a bit more embarassing...).

Those provide good trades Andre! 

[bmathison1972]

Thanks to WhiteLightningWolf on STS, I now have EIGHT new species of Toy Major butterflies. These things just keep coming out of nowhere! I have confident identifications on six of them, a good idea for one, and a tentative ID for one. In no particular order (the letters are the letters that are stamped on them). Also, all figures are also marked 1996.

C. star saphire, Asterope sapphira.



E. Ancyluris formosissima
This is a relatively good ID based on color, although the blue spots are a little misleading. A possible differential is  Palla ussheri (although I like my first choice better).



K. Paris swallowtail, Papilio paris.
If not this species, than certainly something in the paris-group



H. TENTATIVE ID: lesser purple emperor, Apatura ilia (female)
This is the one I am least confident on. A possible differential is a member of the genus Asterocampa, such as the hackberry butterfly A. celtis.



L. Claudina agrias, Agrias claudina



D. California dogface, Zerene eurydice
I was most-excited for this one!



B. common buckeye, Junonia coenia
There appears to be at least two different paint jobs for this species.



G. Wallace's golden birdwing, Ornithoptera croesus.

[bmathison1972]

Walk-around of a cecropia moth, Hyalophora cecropia (Linnaeus, 1758) by an unknown artist. This species occurs throughout much of the eastern North America, south and west possibly to southern Arizona.

A little background on this figure. I stumbled upon it on eBay one day. It was being sold alongside a similar wasp (also reviewed here today) as handmade tin insect figurines. The starting bid was about USD 3.50. I bid it, about 1-2 days before closing, with a max bid of USD 20. Well, about 4 hours before it closed, I was outbid. I decided to try for 50. Outbid. 70. Outbid. What the heck, USD 100. Outbid. Hmmm. 120. Outbid. 150. Outbid. I thought what the heck, did USD 200 and was not outbid. Then about 20 minutes later, I got outbid. I decided I was going to let it go. Anything 200 or more for these two figures couldn't be worth it, right? Well as the last couple hours ticked away I started thinking I was not going to get beat. No way, not today. With 13 seconds left, I snuck in a max bid of USD 225. As usual, when max bids are preplanned, they alternate up about 2 dollars at a time. Well, that started to happen, and I won them in the last second with a bid of USD 220.20! I can't believe I did that! But with the figures in-hand now, I have absolutely NO regrets!

I contacted the seller to see if she was the artist or know who it was. I introduced myself and my hobby and told her I like the info for my database. She said she was an artist, but not the creators of these gems. She bought them years ago at an estate sale in Florida (where the seller happens to live as well). Who knows where they originated...

On to the figure. The cecropia moth (shown here) has a maximum distance between wing tips of 9.5 cm. The base is 9.0 cm long. It stands 7.0 cm high. It seems to fit into the 1:1 range for this species! The figure was sold as being tin, but it feels maybe wood? Plastic? I honestly cannot tell. The wings are thick and made of the same material as the body. The paint job is exquisite! The only thing that would have made it a bit more realistic is if the antennae were broad, so simulate plumose antennae (even females have slightly plumose antennae). It is attached to a flower with a wire. The flower and its leaves are plastic, but not cheap like plastic flowers usually are. The plastic plant is then attached to a piece of driftwood.

Let's let the pictures speak for themselves:

[stemturtle]

Cecropia moth cocoon

Wow! The paper wasp and cecropia moth are works of art. I thought of you, bmathison, while on a walk at a nature center today in Minnesota. Along a path was a cecropia moth cocoon hanging on a sapling, probably ready to hatch any day now.