Lepidoptera

[bmathison1972]

Nice stemturtle! I will be teaching at the Univ of Minnesota May 23-25 and going to a Saints game on the 25th

[bmathison1972]

Walkaround of a hawkmoth caterpillar (e.g., hornworm), the larva of a moth in the family Sphingidae, by an unknown manufacturer. I stumbled upon this recently on eBay. When I purchased the Sun Wai puss moth caterpillar years ago, the novelty store also had a hawkmoth caterpillar. I assumed they were from the same company, so when I bought this on eBay I assumed it was by Sun Wai, but there is no indication of such (also, it's noticeably smaller than the Sun Wai puss moth caterpillar). So I have no idea who made it. If you look at the last image there is something under the 'Made in China' stamp that could be a brand but it doesn't look familiar. There is also no year stamped on it, but it strikes me for something from the 1980s or 1990s, maybe even earlier.

The figure is 19 cm (almost 8 inches) so it is clearly smaller than the Sun Wai figure. It is not attributable to a given species but it's probably in the 2-3:1 range for most sphingid larvae.

The figure is soft and is in fact a 'squeaky' toy, which also makes me wonder if this was originally a dog chew toy rather than a traditional animal toy/figurine?!?

Regardless of who made it and when it was released, this is clearly something that someone like me cannot pass up. And I love presenting these novelty-style reviews of odd, obscure, and unfamiliar figures!

On to the pics:

[bmathison1972]

Walkaround of the Old World swallowtail, Papilio machaon Linnaeus, 1758 by Enesco. The figurine is rather generically painted, but I think P. machaon is the most-likely candidate given the paint job and the wide Palearctic distribution of this species.

The figurine is made entirely of porcelain. When I bought it on eBay I had the assumption the butterfly was porcelain and the base was actual wood, but it's all porcelain. That's fine with me, I have a growing collection of porcelain butterflies .

The wingspan is 6.0 cm and it stands about 6.0 cm at its highest point. It is not detailed on the underside.

On to the pics:

[Beetle guy]

Looks great I must say!

[bmathison1972]

Looks great I must say!

Thanks Marcel, I was excited for your input especially!

[Beetle guy]

witch company did make the Spilosoma glatignyi? That is a really nice one I want to chase ;-)!

[bmathison1972]

that's a Yowie, from the original Australian lines produced by Cadbury. You might find it on eBay.

[bmathison1972]

Overview of the Butterfly Acrylic Mascot set by Ikimon - Nature Techni Colour, new for 2019. This is a set of 10 flat acrylic figures. They are essentially photographs encased in acrylic. They came with keychains attached but I removed them. Normally I would not collect things like this, but since butterflies are essentially flat with their wings out, I could get into these (similar to the previously reviewed plankton acrylic mascot set). At least both sides of the butterflies and moths are shown: the dorsal side of the figure is an image of the dorsal side of the specimen, and likewise the ventral side of the figure has an image of the ventral side of the specimen. The figures are not to scale; they are on average 4.0 cm wide by 4.0 cm tall.

Of the 10 figures, seven of them, marked with an asterisk (*) are new species for me, possibly totally new in figure/model form!

Because they are flat, I thought I'd do group shots rather than individual pics.

The line-up; left to right, top to bottom:

1. Madagascan sunset moth, Chrysiridia rhipheus*
2. Rajah Brooke's birdwing, Trogonoptera brookiana*
3. eighty-eight butterfly, Callicore kolyma* [this figure as marketed as Diaethria sp., but the markings better resemble C. kolyma]
4. Ceylon blue glassy tiger, Ideopsis similis*
5. plain tiger, Danaus chrysippus*
6. Japanese luna moth, Actias artemis*
7. Helana morpho, Morpho helena*
8. greater death's head hawkmoth, Acherontia lachesis
9. Atlas moth, Attacus atlas
10. Japanese Luehdorfia, Luehdorfia japonica

Dorsal:



Ventral:

[bmathison1972]

With the release of a few new sets of caterpillars recently, plus my acquisition of a (nearly) complete set of the obscure and hard-to-find Club Earth set, I decided to do a bulk review of caterpillar sets!

Those marked with as asterisk are, to the best of my knowledge, unique as toys and figures at the species level (not for the developmental stage).

First up, the four Capsule Q Museum collections by Kaiyodo. The first two sets had six figures, the next two had five. They are all lepidopteran larvae, except for one scarabaeoid beetle in Volume 2.

Volume 1 (2013):
1. Asian swallowtail, Papilio xuthus
2. Indian alkwing, Choaspes benjaminii*
3. chestnut tiger, Parantica sita
4. Ailanthus silkmoth, Samia cynthia*
5. deaths-head hawkmoth, Acherontia lachesis*
6. fruit-piercing moth, Eudocima tyrranus*




Volume 2 (2014):
1. spangle, Papilio protenor
2. Old World swallowtail, Papilio machaon
3. cankerworm moth, Cystidia truncangulata*
4. impatiens hawk moth, Theretra oldenlandiae*
5. lobster moth, Stauropus fagi*
6. stag beetle, Dorcus hopei binodulosus
This figure marks the only beetle larva among these Kaiyodo sets!



Volume 3 (2015):
1. paper kite, Idea leuconoe
2. commercial silkworm moth, Bombyx mori
3. great orangetip, Hebomoia glaucippe
4. oleander sparrow, Daphnis nerii*
5. common map, Cyrestis thyodamas*



Volume 4 (2020):
1. Asianswallowtail, Papilio xuthus
this time with an extended osmeterium
2. spangle, Papilio protenor
a different pose than the earlier release
3. Chinese bushbrown, Mycalesis gotama fulginia*
4. great purple emperor, Sasakia charonda
After several adults of this species, I am very happy to finally have a larva!
5. paulownia bagworm, Eumeta variegata* (marketed as E. japonica)
this figure MUST be unique at the family level!



Next, the set Larvae Moei by Shine-G (year unknown). The set features seven figures, six lepidopterans (one of which is a pupa) and one hymenopteran.

1. Old World swallowtail, Papilio machaon
2. P. machaon, but with an extended osmetrium
3. Asian swallowtail, Papilio xuthus
4. chestnut tiger, Parantica sita
5. commercial silkworm moth, Bombyx mori
6. B. mori, pupa
7. giant Japanese hornet, Vespa mandarinia



Next is Volume 2 of the Caterpillars set by Toy Spirits (part of SO-TA) (2020). I had not invested in the first set as they were common species and somewhat stylized. This set, however, offers some unique taxa, and another hymenopteran! The species identifications were made with translational help by Beetle Guy as well as the morphology of photographs of actual insects in promotional pics for the set. The figures are stylized and 'squishy', so they may not look exactly like their intended species.

1. Asian swallowtail, Papilio xuthus
2. Old World swallowtail, Papilio machaon
3. spicebush swallowtail, Papilio troilus*
4. fruit-piercing moth, Eudocima phalonia*
This is my identification; the genus is sound based on the accompanying photograph, but it might represent another species in the genus.
5. sawfly, Corymbas nipponica*
This was the biggest surprise, and what might be the very first symphytan larva in toy form, and only the second symphytan overall I am aware of (the other being the raspberry horntail by Play Visions). I have had trouble finding out much information on this species, and it is possible C. nippnoica has been synonomized with something else.



Next up is the Caterpillars to Go set by Club Earth (year unknown). These were elusive and almost mythical, but with the help of forum member WhiteLightningWolf, I was able to score 11 of the 12 (not shown here is the cloudless sulfur, Phoebis sennae). Each figure is marked with a common name. These figures have been copied and recopied numerous times, with the best tribute by Beam (next set, below).

1. falcate orangetip, Anthocharis midea
2. Mylitta crescent, Phyciodes mylitta
3. American painted lady, Vanessa virginiensis
4. small Apollo, Parnassius phoebus
5. zebra longwing, Heliconius charithonia
6. creamy marblewing, Euchloe ausonides
7. zebra swallowtail, Protographium marcellus
8. gulf fritillary, Agraulis vanillae
9. queen, Danaus glippus
10. anise swallowtail, Papilio zelicaon
11. pipevine swallowtail, Battus philenor



The last set is Imomushi by Beam (year unknown). This is probably the best set influenced by the Club Earth caterpillars. Nine of the 12 species are shared between the sets. For the figures unique to this set, the identifications are my own.

1. anise swallowtail, Papilio zelicaon
2. zebra swallowtail, Protographium marcellus
3. pipevine swallowtail, Battus philenor
4. small Apollo, Parnassius phoebus
5. queen, Danaus glippus
6. Mylitta crescent, Phyciodes mylitta
7. great spangled fritillary, Speyeria cybele*
This is my identification
8. American painted lady, Vanessa virginiensis
9. falcate orangetip, Anthocharis midea
10. creamy marblewing, Euchloe ausonides
11. unknown (I have this tentatively identified as the small tortoiseshell, Aglais uticae.)
12. unknown (maybe something in Satyrinae?)

[bmathison1972]

Kaiyodo paulowania bagworm:

[Advicot]

Thanks for posting this Blaine, I have now identified some of the caterpillars in my collection 

[bmathison1972]

Problematic Papilionoidea Pedigrees, Part 1

When attempting to identify butterfly figures not marketed at the species level, one must often research the pedigree of the paint! Companies are notorious for copying one another, with slight variations on theme.

As I post controversial or otherwise tenuous identifications on my Museum post, Blog, or otherwise on the forum, I will also post here the justification for the ID based on the history of the paint jobs.

I will start this for Cairn's birdwing, Ornithoptera euphorion. These figures are not in chronological order (as far as I know). The figure in the upper left is by Club Earth, which was specifically marketed as Cairn's birdwing. It is followed by, from left to right, top to bottom: 1) unknown mfr. (from a set that is essentially a copy of the CE models), 2) US Toy, 3) Toy Major, and 4) Insect Lore. One can see slight variation from figure to figure but they are all based on the original CE model.

[Isidro]

The Kaiyodo caterpillars are incredibly realistic! Very well done, they're atonishing and they could pass for the real ones if put in the foliage of a plant! By contrast, the Shine-G ones are the most simplistic ones, probably more "toyish" would be an adequate adjective. The remaining brands are intermediate in quality between these two extremes

[bmathison1972]

Problematic Papilionoidea Pedigrees, Part 2

Continuing this theme with the paper kite, Idea leuconoe.

The following figures, from left to right, top to bottom:
Safari Ltd (Butterflies of the World Collectors Case, 2001)*
K&M International (Butterflies Nature Tube, 2004)*
K&M International (Butterflies Mini Polybag, unknown year but prior to 2013)
Insect Lore (Big Bunch-O Butterflies, 2013)

*the two larger figures were sculpted with tails, which this species should not have. I normally don't like to alter figures, but for such a simple cosmetic change for the better, I cut them off.

[bmathison1972]

Silkworms on Parade:

Larva and pupa by Shine-G:



Larva and adult by Kaiyodo:



Life cycle by Insect Lore:

[bmathison1972]

Toys Spirits spicebush swallowtail caterpillar:

[bmathison1972]

4D Master monarch:

[bmathison1972]

Papo Old World Swallowtail, adult and larva:

[bmathison1972]

Paleo-Creatures Atlas moth:

[bmathison1972]

Paleo-Creatures rosy maple moth: