Searching for "Romeo" in Panay, Philippines

Kitamura's collection (Nymphalidae in Philippines)

 

Searching for "Romeo" in Panay, Philippines

   The late Mr. KITAMURA Minoru (1937-2003) is a Japanese butterfly enthusiast who made a great contribution to the study on immature stages of many butterflies in Philippines. He worked as a civil engineer but spent most of his spare time on the study of butterflies.

   Recently small part of his collection was donated to RIEB (Research Institute of Evolutionary Biology) where our secretariat is housed.

   Here the author of this blog would like to introduce his collection to the memory of him. This collection contains chiefly Nymphalidae and Hesperiidae in Philippines. Almost all specimens were collected by himself or his native staffs. So the collecting data is precise.

   Among these precious specimens, Romeo's Assyrian (Terinos romeo) is one of the most remarkable specimens.

Romeo's Assyrian (Terinos romeo), Male (Panay, Philippines)

 

   This beautiful species was first described from Panay in 1984 by Schröder and Treadaway who are well-known Lepidopterists specialized in butterflies in Philippines. After the discovery, no additional record had been obtained until Mr. KITAMURA re-discovered this species in northern Panay.

The location of Panay Island (Red dot)

Detailed map of the collecting site (by KITAMURA, 1993)

 

    In 1993, KITAMURA visited Panay to join the baptismal service for his Philipino relative. Then he went into the jungle for searching butterflies as usual. There he found one strange-looking Nymphalid butterfly visiting the tree flower. He got it but could not identify it. After going back home in Manila and checked the book. Soon he shouted "Oh, this is ROMEO!!"

After this discovery, he has visited there many times to unveil the early stages of this butterfly. But he could not make it though he found the female of this species for the first time in the world.

Romeo's Assyrian (Terinos romeo), Female (Panay, Philippines)

 

   He suddenly passed away in 2003. He has unveiled the early stages of more than 200 butterfly species in Philippines. His unprecedant achievement greatly contributed to the book, "The Life Histories of Asian Butterflies" (Vol.1-2) by Igarashi and Fukuda.

   KITAMURA's abrupt death was definitely a great loss to the study of butterflies in Philippines.