Delias catisa Jordan 1912
Delias catisa aurostriga male
Pass Valley, Papua, July 2016
Picture by Hiro Takenouchi
Subspecies and range of Delias catisa :
. catisa Jordan 1912 - Mt Goliath, Papua; Western Prov. PNG
. aurostriga Roepke 1955 - Ibele River, Pass Valley, Papua
. wisseliana Roepke 1955 - Weyland Mtns, Papua
. morinakai Yagishita 1993 - Central Mtns, Papua
. sumbole van Mastrigt 2001 - Sumbole, 900-1000m, Wolon River, Irian Jaya
Notes on Delias catisa :
Distinguished from the rest of the group by the male upperside hindwing having only a narrow black marginal border and the reduced yellow markings on the forewing verso.
It is a variable species. I found some orange, yellow and white forewing specimens on the same spot in the Pass Valley, Papua.
Females are very rare in collection.
Original Description - Jordan (1911, Novitates Zoologicae xviii) - "Male: A remarkable species on account of its close agreement with D. eichhorni in the markings on the underside of the hind wing. The neuration of the two species shows a constant difference. In eichhorni the lower angle of the cell of the fore wing is pointed, while it is obtuse in catisa, and the cross-vein of the hind wing is distinctly incurved or angulate in eichhorni and straight and very feebly incurved in catisa. The fore wing of catisa is broader than in eichhorni, and the hind wing more evenly rounded, being shorter costally. the costal border on the upperside of the fore wing is 2mm. broad; distal border extends to the cross-vein, there being sometimes diffuse white scaling just outside the black cross-vein, and has a width of 3mm. at the lower median vein; one subapical dot is sometimes indicated. The border of the hind wing is 1mm. wide or less, being nearly restricted to the fringes posteriorly and more or less interrupted at the veins. The black costal border on the underside of the fore wing is broader than above, occupying about one-half of the cell; the discocellular bar is broad and joined to the distal border, a short band of three yellowish spots being isolated from the light-coloured area and situated at the subcostal-radial fork. there is a row of three subapical dots, usually followed by two or three submarginal dots: the first dot is yellow, and the second, which is the largest of all, is tinged with yellow proximally, the others being also more or less shaded with yellow. The light-coloured area, which extends to the base of hindmargin, and is anteriorly bounded by vein R³, is white as far as it is covered by the hind wing and anteriorly more or less deeply suffused with sulphur-yellow; in D. eichhorni this area is uniformly orange. the pattern of the hind wing is the same as in D. eichhorni; but while the white central marking shaped like a figure 3 bears a prominent yellow streak in each cellule in D. eichhorni, the streaks are absent, or at most indicated, in cellules R¹-R² and R³-M¹ in catisa. Moreover, the fourth and fifth submarginal spots are larger and more triangular; the last spot is less extended yellow, and the yellow line along SM² is appreciably deeper in tone".
Female: Original Description - Talbot (1929 , Monograph of the Pierine Genus Delias, Pt. iv, p.202) -"Fore wing above with broader black distal and costal area. The white area more or less tinged with yellow. three very small yellowish and partly suffused spots, one subapical, one costal in cellule 8, and one below it in 5. Hind wing more or less tinged with yellow with the marginal black wider than in the male, its edge not sharply defined and with at least a defined spot in 5 where the black is widest. Underside as in the male".
Group eichhorni species :