Checklist of Butterflies of Peninsular Malaysia:

With Scientific, English, and Malay names

Rosli Omar

Flora Special Interest Group, Malaysian Nature Society

rosliomar@fastmail.fm

5 April 2024

Abstract

This paper describes the creation of a Checklist for butterflies of Peninsular Malaysia with each species having a Malay (Bahasa Melayu) name, alongside scientific and English names, a first such checklist for Peninsula butterflies. Before this, butterfly species do not have Malay names. The aim of this creation is to have the Malay names created in a systematic manner such that the relationship between species as to their subfamily (but not to the family since all families are subdivided into subfamilies, the start of the naming) and genus or related genera is known from the name itself. For example, Painted Lady and Red Indian Admiral of the genus Vanessa are Laksamana Bersolek and Laksamana India Merah respectively, using ‘group name’ Laksamana for this genus. Group names can also be applied to related genera, for example Rimau to the Tigers of Danaus, Tirumala, and Ideopsis.

KEYWORDS

Butterfly Checklist Peninsular Malaysia. Butterflies’ Malay names. Systematic Malay naming. Species family relationship.

Introduction

This checklist is based on the Checklist in the book (Chapter two), Butterflies of Peninsular Malaysia: with a checklist of Scientific, English, and Malay names (Omar et al. 2023). Here, modifications and improvements are made to that checklist in the light of our experience and further insights obtained in drawing up Malay names checklists for snakes, odonates, birds, and mammals of Peninsular Malaysia.

This Checklist consists of three lists: scientific names, English names, and Bahasa Melayu (Malay) names. The scientific names are that of Corbet and Pendlebury (2020), 5th edition, or C&P5 for short. English names are added, either from C&P5, which only gives limited names, or from Ek-Amnuay (2012), Kirton (2020), Khew (2015), the ButterflyCircle and Butterflies of Raub blogs, and from other internet sources. Malay names are quite often adaptations from the English although less dependent in this modified Checklist than the original.

Other names, either English or scientific, used by different authors are also noted. Where an entry is different from Corbet and Pendlebury (1992), 4th edition, or C&P4, this is noted in the entry. This is in the fifth item in the checklist. The fourth item is the distribution of the species in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, including habitat type.

C&P5 in Appendix F lists 1,051 species for Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, with 1,048 species for Peninsular Malaysia. This checklist then is actually for both countries with those exclusive to Singapore noted for three species. A fourth has been discovered in Johor by the ButterCircle. C&P5 also lists 153 subspecies. There is a further 12 species described as “Species of questionable records” (Appendix C) which are not included in the 1,051 species count. These are marked with the symbol * in the Checklist.

Objectives of the Malay checklist

The vast majority of butterfly species do not have Malay names. And there are none in the Wildlife Conservation (Amendment of Schedule) Order 2012 published by the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC 2012). Thus, the attempt to create one in the above-mentioned Checklist of Omar et al (2023). And here, a refinement of that Checklist.

Apart from creating a Malay names Checklist, the next objective is to create names that show the relationship between species, if any, i.e., the attempt here is to show the relatedness in the Malay names themselves. This relationship maybe that:

  1. of the same subfamily (not possible to family because there are just too many to a family given that 1051 species are distributed to only six families). For example,  we would not know from the English names that the Jezebels, Albatrosses and Orange-tips are of the same subfamily (Family: Pieridae, Subfamily: Pierinae);
  2. or of the same genus or related genera. To a certain extent this relationship is indicated in English names where we have the groups of, say, Albatross, Jezebel, and Jay butterflies. But not always. For example, from the groups Jay, Swordtail, and Zebra we would not know that they are related. Only when we look at their genus, Graphium, do we realise that they are very closely related even if they look quite different. (We have not always been successful for every subfamily with some species being too varied in their characteristics to find a common group name, e.g, Family: Nymphalidae, Subfamily: Satyrinae).
  3. Apart from genetic relatedness, another is relatedness in appearance. For example, the Imperials. First, we have the White Imperial under genus Neomyrina. Further down 19 entries later there is the Branded Imperial under Eooxylides. And after that the Cardinal (Thamala marciana) followed by three more Imperials. Even though they are separated by other species they are recognisable as Imperials. Thus, the Malay names for these species correspond to Imperial too (Ekorpanjang). But note that all the Imperials are still of the same subfamily (Family: Lycaenidae, Subfamily: Theclinae).

For the scientific names Checklist of C&P5 we take it that the species are arranged in some taxonomical order, i.e., species genetically near to each other are listed near to each other, and vice versa. Hence, for the purpose of creating a Malay name we may take that a species listed between two species of, say, Imperials is itself an Imperial if it looks like an Imperial. This is the case of the Cardinal which is given the Malay name of an Imperial (Ekorpanjang Utama).

Note: The Malay names, like their English counterparts, are only to the species level, not to the sub-species level as in the scientific names.

How the Malay names Checklist was created

From the above objectives, there are two ways to create a Malay name for a butterfly species:

1. <Subfamily name><Group name><Specific name>

2. <Group name><Subgroup name><Specific name>

Method 1 is chosen when either there is an English name for the subfamily, from which a Malay name can be adapted, or a Malay name can be created given some common characteristic of the subfamily. For example, the subfamily Coliadinae (Family: Pieridae) which does not have an English name. Here are the yellow butterflies: Grass Yellow, Emigrant, Tree Yellow etc. Thus, this is given the Malay subfamily name of Kuning.

For example, consider Eurema brigitta senna, the Small Grass Yellow. The Subfamily name is Kuning, the Group name, Rumput, and the Specific name, Kecil i.e., Kuning Rumput Kecil.

Another example, Gandaca harina distanti, the Tree Yellow. Again, the Subfamily name is Kuning, with the Group name Pohon. Since this is the only species of the Pohon group there is no need for the Specific name to uniquely specify this species, i.e., the name is Kuning Pohon.

Method 2. This is chosen if Method 1 is not possible, for example, there are too many species with different characteristics that there is not much in  common. But in line with the above objective, here, if possible, we try to have a common theme to the subfamily. For example, subfamily Pierinae (Family: Pieridae) has groups named after birds:  Albatross and Gull. But others are not: Jezebel, Sawtooth etc. For the Malay names, we have named these other groups also after birds. Thus, Pierinae is a bird-themed subfamily.

Example, Appias cardena perakana, the Yellow Puffin. The Group name is Albatros (for the genus Appias), the Subgroup name is Rembah (for Puffin) and the Specific name is Kuning, i.e., Albatros Rembah Kuning.

Method 2, apart from applying to a genus can be applied to related genera too (or genera quite far apart but within the same subfamily as the case of the Imperials mentioned above). Consider the Tigers of Danaus, Tirumala, and Ideopsis,

Danaus chrysippus chrysippusPlain Tiger. Rimau  Dataran

Tirumala limniace exotica – Blue Tiger. Rimau Biru

Ideopsis vulgaris macrinaBlue Glassy Tiger. Rimau Kaca Biru

Ideopsis gaura perakanaSmaller Wood Nymph. Rimau Bidadari Kecil

Note the last entry. It is an Ideopsis and thus a Tiger even though its English name is a Nymph—and does look like the four other Nymphs—all of genus Idea, the immediate genus below Ideopsis. Since we follow genetic relatedness ahead of appearance relatedness, all species of a given genus must follow its Group name.

There are other subfamilies where the groups are so varied that we cannot even have a theme to the subfamily. Such is the subfamily Satyrinae (Family: Nymphalidae) as mentioned above.  

Guidelines in Malay naming

General naming form. The two namingmethods each consist of three components i.e., the maximum number of components for a species name is three. But as we saw above, for the Tree Yellow, the Malay name has only two. The number of components depends on the need to uniquely specify the species. In some cases, we need only one. For example, Graphium doson evemonides, the Common Jay. In Malay this is Riang. We have decided, in general, not to use Common for the Malay name. See below.

Limited use of Common but use of Rare or Scarce. As mentioned above, species named as Common is not generally adapted in the Malay name. This is because a species may be common in its original place where it was first described (technically, Type Locality) or may no longer be common or may not be common in the future. If it is used it is mainly to distinguish between species names. On the other hand, we do use the Malay equivalent for rare or scarce species, Jarang, for it is informative and quite unlikely to be common as time passes.

The use of the hyphen. This has several uses:

  1. To distinguish between nearly similar group names. For example, in the subfamily Polyommatinae (Family: Lycaenidae) there are various groups of blue butterflies: Biru-pepagar (Hedge Blue), Biru-rumput (Grass Blue), Biru (Blue) etc.
  2. To indicate that hyphenated two or more words are an item. This is useful to ensure that the maximum three components rule to a name is followed. For example, Burara anadi owstoni, the Plain Orange Awlet, Penusuk Kecil Oren-Bukit-fraser.  
  3. To prevent confusion whether, for a subfamily, a middle word being a Group name or a part of the Specific name. For example, for the subfamily Coeliadinae (Family: Hesperiidae), Hasora salanga, the Black-tailed Awl, Penusuk Ekor-hitam. With the hyphen it is clear that Ekor-hitam is the Specific name. 

Non-use of human names. The American Ornithological Society decided to rename English bird names with names of people to ones without them (AOS 2023). Here we follow them for butterfly Malay names.

 A final note. In creating the Malay names, we can keep in mind that many of the English names are quite arbitrary, names such as Sailor (or Sailer), Sergeant, Archduke, Helen, Gorgon, etc. They are not related to any feature of the butterflies. Thus, we are quite free to adapt the names.  Although some, like the Nymphs, is because of their graceful flight, which is why we adapted it as Bidadari, with a similar connotation.

                                                               **************************

Note: Kedawi is the geographical area Kedah-Langkawi-Perlis, a term used by C&P5 that we too use here, to describe the tropical monsoon — as opposed to the equatorial — area that has some unique butterflies.

Keys for distribution of the butterflies as given in C&P5 (4th item in the Checklist):

A, P, T: Aur, Pemanggil, Tioman Islands on the east coast.

K: Kedawi – Kedah-Perlis, north of Sungai Kedah (tropical monsoon area as opposed to equatorial, with some unique species/subspecies)

L : Langkawi

M: Peninsular Malaysia proper minus K, L, and other islands

1: coastal mangrove association

2: secondary plant growth below 760m

3: primary forest below 760m

4: all areas above 760m

S: Singapore

C&P5 takes 760m as the divide between lowland and montane regions. Other authors like Kirton (2020) take it as 800m, and still others, 900m.

General abbreviations

TL: Type Locality (where a specimen was first collected for the species to be scientifically described).

PM: Peninsular Malaysia

The Checklist

The Checklist, arranged according to Families and Subfamilies following C&P5

Family: Papilionidae

Family: Papilionidae      SubFamily: Papilioninae     Emotion-themed Groups

Family: Pieridae

Family: Pieridae     SubFamily: Pierinae   Bird-themed groups

Family: Pieridae      SubFamily: Coliadinae      Kuning Subfamily

Family: Nymphalidae

Family: Nymphalidae    SubFamily: Danainae     Rimau, Bidadari, Rubah Groups

-form wheeleri   K

Family: Nymphalidae    SubFamily: Satyrinae     Browns and Arguses but generally, varied groups

Family: Nymphalidae     SubFamily: Heliconiinae    Old Malay Society-themed groups

Family: Nymphalidae     SubFamily: Biblidinae    Jarak/Castor Subfamily

Family: Nymphalidae     SubFamily: Nymphalinae    Beauty, Leaf-themed Groups

Family: Nymphalidae     SubFamily: Cyrestinae     Peta/Map Subfamily

Family: Nymphalidae     SubFamily: Limenitidinae     Military and Nobility Groups

Family: Nymphalidae     SubFamily: Pseudergolinae    Ninja Subfamily

Family: Nymphalidae    SubFamily: Apaturinae   Royal Household Groups

Family: Nymphalidae    SubFamily: Charaxinae    Indian Noblity Groups

Family: Nymphalidae     SubFamily: Libytheinae    Paruh Subfamily

Family: Riodinidae

Family: Riodinidae   Subfamily: Nemeobiinae      Comedy-themed Groups

Family: Lycaenidae

Family: Lycaenidae      SubFamily: Poritiinae    Batu Permata/Gems Groups

Family: Lycaenidae      SubFamily: Miletinae       Wing colour-themed Groups

Family: Lycaenidae      SubFamily: Curetinae      Sinarsuria/Sunbeam Subfamily

Family: Lycaenidae     SubFamily: Lycaeninae    Nilam Subfamily

Family: Lycaenidae      SubFamily: Polyommatinae    Hitam-dan-putih and Biru Groups

Family: Lycaenidae     SubFamily: Aphnaeinae     Barisperak Subfamily

Family: Lycaenidae     SubFamily: Theclinae    Hairstreaks: Varied Groups

Family: Hesperiidae  

Family: Hesperiidae      SubFamily: Coeliadinae   Penusuk/Awl Subfamily

Family: Hesperiidae      SubFamily: Pyrginae    Datar/Flat Subfamily  

Family: Hesperiidae      SubFamily: Hesperiinae    Skipper: Speed-themed Groups

(Or E. hiraca by Ek-Amnuay)   Erionata: Pantas Group

(again)

Results and Discussion

A Checklist of Peninsular Malaysian butterflies with a Malay name to each species is achieved alongside scientific and English names. This is a first of such Checklist for Peninsular Malaysia. Scientific names follow C&P5 and also English names if available, else from other sources. The Malay names were created in a systematic manner and relationship if any  between species as to subfamily and genus or closely related genera is made known.

There are two methods to create a Malay name for a butterfly species:

1. <Subfamily name><Group name><Specific name>

2. <Group name><Subgroup name><Specific name>

Method 1 enables species of a subfamily and group to be identified. For example, Kuning subfamily of Coliadinae, such as, Kuning Rumput Kecil, Eurema brigitta senna, the Small Grass Yellow. Or, Kuning Emigran Lemon, Catopsilia pomona pomona, the Lemon Emigrant.

Themed groups of Method 2 is the next best for association if a subfamily does not have a single subfamily name to apply Method 1.  For example, bird-themed groups of Pierinae with groups such as Kesumba (trogon), and Camar (gull). Examples are, Kesumba Bersolek, Delias hyparete metarete, the Painted Jezebel, and  Camar Oren, Cepora iudith malaya, the Orange Gull.

Method 1 has been applied to 10 subfamilies and Method 2 to 15 subfamilies, of which 13 are themed groups. The two subfamilies that have groups that are too varied to use the themed group names are Theclinae (Family: Lycaenidae), and Satyrinae (Family: Nymphalidae).

Conclusion

According to C&P5, there are 1051 butterfly species for Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore distributed in six families: Papilionidae (45 species), Pieridae (47), Nymphalidae (281), Riodinidae (16), Lycaenidae (402), and Hesperiidae (260). As for Peninsular Malaysia, we have 1048 species (with three species of the 1051 species found only in Singapore; a fourth since being discovered in Johor).

Butterfly species do not have official or already widely used Malay names (except the general Kertas or Surat  for the Nymph butterflies). This makes it easier to create Malay names as proposed by Methods 1 and 2 to achieve the objectives of Malay naming i.e., to create Malay names systematically and to indicate relationships (subfamily and genus/genera) between species, if any. Easier compared to creating Checklists for mammals, birds, and snakes that we have also done.

References

AGC (2012), Attorney General’s Chambers, Wildlife Conservation (Amendment of Schedule) Order 2012. Kuala Lumpur

AOS 2023. American Ornithological Society, American Ornithological Society Will Change the English Names of Bird Species Named After People. https://americanornithology.org/american-ornithological-society-will-change-the-english-names-of-bird-species-named-after-people/    (Accessed 25 December 2023)

Corbet, S.A. and Pendlebury, H.M.  (1992), Butterflies of the Malay Peninsula. 4th edition, edited by J.N. Eliot. Malayan Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur   (C&P4)

Corbet, S.A. and Pendlebury, H.M. (2020), The Butterflies of the Malay Peninsula. 5th edition, edited by GM & NE van der Poorten. Malayan Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur.   (C&P5)

Ek-Amnuay, P. (2012), Butterflies of Thailand. 2nd edition. Amarin Printing and Publishing, Bangkok.

Khew, S.K. (2015). A Field Guide to the Butterflies of Singapore. Ink On Paper, Singapore.

Kirton, L. (2020). A Naturalist’s Guide To Butterflies of Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. John Beaufoy Publishing, Oxford.

Yong, H.S. (1983). Malaysian Butterflies: an introduction. 4th impression, 2000. Tropical Press., Kuala Lumpur.

Websites:

ButterflyCircle: https://butterflycircle.blogspot.com/

Liew, NL. Butterflies of Raub: https://nlliew66butterflies.blogspot.com/

Hoskins, A. https://www.learnaboutbutterflies.com/index.htm

iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/

Savela, Markku: https://www.nic.funet.fi/index/Tree_of_life/warp/lepidoptera-index-e-q.html

Checklist of Butterflies of Peninsular Malaysia:

With Scientific, English, and Malay names

Rosli Omar

Flora Special Interest Group, Malaysian Nature Society

rosliomar@fastmail.fm

Tel: 0192823667

5 April 2024

Abstract

This paper describes the creation of a Checklist for butterflies of Peninsular Malaysia with each species having a Malay (Bahasa Melayu) name, alongside scientific and English names, a first such checklist for Peninsula butterflies. Before this, butterfly species do not have Malay names. The aim of this creation is to have the Malay names created in a systematic manner such that the relationship between species as to their subfamily (but not to the family since all families are subdivided into subfamilies, the start of the naming) and genus or related genera is known from the name itself. For example, Painted Lady and Red Indian Admiral of the genus Vanessa are Laksamana Bersolek and Laksamana India Merah respectively, using ‘group name’ Laksamana for this genus. Group names can also be applied to related genera, for example Rimau to the Tigers of Danaus, Tirumala, and Ideopsis.

KEYWORDS

Butterfly Checklist Peninsular Malaysia. Butterflies’ Malay names. Systematic Malay naming. Species family relationship.

Introduction

This checklist is based on the Checklist in the book (Chapter two), Butterflies of Peninsular Malaysia: with a checklist of Scientific, English, and Malay names (Omar et al. 2023). Here, modifications and improvements are made to that checklist in the light of our experience and further insights obtained in drawing up Malay names checklists for snakes, odonates, birds, and mammals of Peninsular Malaysia.

This Checklist consists of three lists: scientific names, English names, and Bahasa Melayu (Malay) names. The scientific names are that of Corbet and Pendlebury (2020), 5th edition, or C&P5 for short. English names are added, either from C&P5, which only gives limited names, or from Ek-Amnuay (2012), Kirton (2020), Khew (2015), the ButterflyCircle and Butterflies of Raub blogs, and from other internet sources. Malay names are quite often adaptations from the English although less dependent in this modified Checklist than the original.

Other names, either English or scientific, used by different authors are also noted. Where an entry is different from Corbet and Pendlebury (1992), 4th edition, or C&P4, this is noted in the entry. This is in the fifth item in the checklist. The fourth item is the distribution of the species in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, including habitat type.

C&P5 in Appendix F lists 1,051 species for Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, with 1,048 species for Peninsular Malaysia. This checklist then is actually for both countries with those exclusive to Singapore noted for three species. A fourth has been discovered in Johor by the ButterCircle. C&P5 also lists 153 subspecies. There is a further 12 species described as “Species of questionable records” (Appendix C) which are not included in the 1,051 species count. These are marked with the symbol * in the Checklist.

Objectives of the Malay checklist

The vast majority of butterfly species do not have Malay names. And there are none in the Wildlife Conservation (Amendment of Schedule) Order 2012 published by the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC 2012). Thus, the attempt to create one in the above-mentioned Checklist of Omar et al (2023). And here, a refinement of that Checklist.

Apart from creating a Malay names Checklist, the next objective is to create names that show the relationship between species, if any, i.e., the attempt here is to show the relatedness in the Malay names themselves. This relationship maybe that:

  1. of the same subfamily (not possible to family because there are just too many to a family given that 1051 species are distributed to only six families). For example,  we would not know from the English names that the Jezebels, Albatrosses and Orange-tips are of the same subfamily (Family: Pieridae, Subfamily: Pierinae);
  2. or of the same genus or related genera. To a certain extent this relationship is indicated in English names where we have the groups of, say, Albatross, Jezebel, and Jay butterflies. But not always. For example, from the groups Jay, Swordtail, and Zebra we would not know that they are related. Only when we look at their genus, Graphium, do we realise that they are very closely related even if they look quite different. (We have not always been successful for every subfamily with some species being too varied in their characteristics to find a common group name, e.g, Family: Nymphalidae, Subfamily: Satyrinae).
  3. Apart from genetic relatedness, another is relatedness in appearance. For example, the Imperials. First, we have the White Imperial under genus Neomyrina. Further down 19 entries later there is the Branded Imperial under Eooxylides. And after that the Cardinal (Thamala marciana) followed by three more Imperials. Even though they are separated by other species they are recognisable as Imperials. Thus, the Malay names for these species correspond to Imperial too (Ekorpanjang). But note that all the Imperials are still of the same subfamily (Family: Lycaenidae, Subfamily: Theclinae).

For the scientific names Checklist of C&P5 we take it that the species are arranged in some taxonomical order, i.e., species genetically near to each other are listed near to each other, and vice versa. Hence, for the purpose of creating a Malay name we may take that a species listed between two species of, say, Imperials is itself an Imperial if it looks like an Imperial. This is the case of the Cardinal which is given the Malay name of an Imperial (Ekorpanjang Utama).

Note: The Malay names, like their English counterparts, are only to the species level, not to the sub-species level as in the scientific names.

How the Malay names Checklist was created

From the above objectives, there are two ways to create a Malay name for a butterfly species:

1. <Subfamily name><Group name><Specific name>

2. <Group name><Subgroup name><Specific name>

Method 1 is chosen when either there is an English name for the subfamily, from which a Malay name can be adapted, or a Malay name can be created given some common characteristic of the subfamily. For example, the subfamily Coliadinae (Family: Pieridae) which does not have an English name. Here are the yellow butterflies: Grass Yellow, Emigrant, Tree Yellow etc. Thus, this is given the Malay subfamily name of Kuning.

For example, consider Eurema brigitta senna, the Small Grass Yellow. The Subfamily name is Kuning, the Group name, Rumput, and the Specific name, Kecil i.e., Kuning Rumput Kecil.

Another example, Gandaca harina distanti, the Tree Yellow. Again, the Subfamily name is Kuning, with the Group name Pohon. Since this is the only species of the Pohon group there is no need for the Specific name to uniquely specify this species, i.e., the name is Kuning Pohon.

Method 2. This is chosen if Method 1 is not possible, for example, there are too many species with different characteristics that there is not much in  common. But in line with the above objective, here, if possible, we try to have a common theme to the subfamily. For example, subfamily Pierinae (Family: Pieridae) has groups named after birds:  Albatross and Gull. But others are not: Jezebel, Sawtooth etc. For the Malay names, we have named these other groups also after birds. Thus, Pierinae is a bird-themed subfamily.

Example, Appias cardena perakana, the Yellow Puffin. The Group name is Albatros (for the genus Appias), the Subgroup name is Rembah (for Puffin) and the Specific name is Kuning, i.e., Albatros Rembah Kuning.

Method 2, apart from applying to a genus can be applied to related genera too (or genera quite far apart but within the same subfamily as the case of the Imperials mentioned above). Consider the Tigers of Danaus, Tirumala, and Ideopsis,

Danaus chrysippus chrysippusPlain Tiger. Rimau  Dataran

Tirumala limniace exotica – Blue Tiger. Rimau Biru

Ideopsis vulgaris macrinaBlue Glassy Tiger. Rimau Kaca Biru

Ideopsis gaura perakanaSmaller Wood Nymph. Rimau Bidadari Kecil

Note the last entry. It is an Ideopsis and thus a Tiger even though its English name is a Nymph—and does look like the four other Nymphs—all of genus Idea, the immediate genus below Ideopsis. Since we follow genetic relatedness ahead of appearance relatedness, all species of a given genus must follow its Group name.

There are other subfamilies where the groups are so varied that we cannot even have a theme to the subfamily. Such is the subfamily Satyrinae (Family: Nymphalidae) as mentioned above.  

Guidelines in Malay naming

General naming form. The two namingmethods each consist of three components i.e., the maximum number of components for a species name is three. But as we saw above, for the Tree Yellow, the Malay name has only two. The number of components depends on the need to uniquely specify the species. In some cases, we need only one. For example, Graphium doson evemonides, the Common Jay. In Malay this is Riang. We have decided, in general, not to use Common for the Malay name. See below.

Limited use of Common but use of Rare or Scarce. As mentioned above, species named as Common is not generally adapted in the Malay name. This is because a species may be common in its original place where it was first described (technically, Type Locality) or may no longer be common or may not be common in the future. If it is used it is mainly to distinguish between species names. On the other hand, we do use the Malay equivalent for rare or scarce species, Jarang, for it is informative and quite unlikely to be common as time passes.

The use of the hyphen. This has several uses:

  1. To distinguish between nearly similar group names. For example, in the subfamily Polyommatinae (Family: Lycaenidae) there are various groups of blue butterflies: Biru-pepagar (Hedge Blue), Biru-rumput (Grass Blue), Biru (Blue) etc.
  2. To indicate that hyphenated two or more words are an item. This is useful to ensure that the maximum three components rule to a name is followed. For example, Burara anadi owstoni, the Plain Orange Awlet, Penusuk Kecil Oren-Bukit-fraser.  
  3. To prevent confusion whether, for a subfamily, a middle word being a Group name or a part of the Specific name. For example, for the subfamily Coeliadinae (Family: Hesperiidae), Hasora salanga, the Black-tailed Awl, Penusuk Ekor-hitam. With the hyphen it is clear that Ekor-hitam is the Specific name. 

Non-use of human names. The American Ornithological Society decided to rename English bird names with names of people to ones without them (AOS 2023). Here we follow them for butterfly Malay names.

 A final note. In creating the Malay names, we can keep in mind that many of the English names are quite arbitrary, names such as Sailor (or Sailer), Sergeant, Archduke, Helen, Gorgon, etc. They are not related to any feature of the butterflies. Thus, we are quite free to adapt the names.  Although some, like the Nymphs, is because of their graceful flight, which is why we adapted it as Bidadari, with a similar connotation.

                                                               **************************

Note: Kedawi is the geographical area Kedah-Langkawi-Perlis, a term used by C&P5 that we too use here, to describe the tropical monsoon — as opposed to the equatorial — area that has some unique butterflies.

Keys for distribution of the butterflies as given in C&P5 (4th item in the Checklist):

A, P, T: Aur, Pemanggil, Tioman Islands on the east coast.

K: Kedawi – Kedah-Perlis, north of Sungai Kedah (tropical monsoon area as opposed to equatorial, with some unique species/subspecies)

L : Langkawi

M: Peninsular Malaysia proper minus K, L, and other islands

1: coastal mangrove association

2: secondary plant growth below 760m

3: primary forest below 760m

4: all areas above 760m

S: Singapore

C&P5 takes 760m as the divide between lowland and montane regions. Other authors like Kirton (2020) take it as 800m, and still others, 900m.

General abbreviations

TL: Type Locality (where a specimen was first collected for the species to be scientifically described).

PM: Peninsular Malaysia

The Checklist

The Checklist, arranged according to Families and Subfamilies following C&P5

Family: Papilionidae

Family: Papilionidae      SubFamily: Papilioninae     Emotion-themed Groups

Family: Pieridae

Family: Pieridae     SubFamily: Pierinae   Bird-themed groups

Family: Pieridae      SubFamily: Coliadinae      Kuning Subfamily

Family: Nymphalidae

Family: Nymphalidae    SubFamily: Danainae     Rimau, Bidadari, Rubah Groups

-form wheeleri   K

Family: Nymphalidae    SubFamily: Satyrinae     Browns and Arguses but generally, varied groups

Family: Nymphalidae     SubFamily: Heliconiinae    Old Malay Society-themed groups

Family: Nymphalidae     SubFamily: Biblidinae    Jarak/Castor Subfamily

Family: Nymphalidae     SubFamily: Nymphalinae    Beauty, Leaf-themed Groups

Family: Nymphalidae     SubFamily: Cyrestinae     Peta/Map Subfamily

Family: Nymphalidae     SubFamily: Limenitidinae     Military and Nobility Groups

Family: Nymphalidae     SubFamily: Pseudergolinae    Ninja Subfamily

Family: Nymphalidae    SubFamily: Apaturinae   Royal Household Groups

Family: Nymphalidae    SubFamily: Charaxinae    Indian Noblity Groups

Family: Nymphalidae     SubFamily: Libytheinae    Paruh Subfamily

Family: Riodinidae

Family: Riodinidae   Subfamily: Nemeobiinae      Comedy-themed Groups

Family: Lycaenidae

Family: Lycaenidae      SubFamily: Poritiinae    Batu Permata/Gems Groups

Family: Lycaenidae      SubFamily: Miletinae       Wing colour-themed Groups

Family: Lycaenidae      SubFamily: Curetinae      Sinarsuria/Sunbeam Subfamily

Family: Lycaenidae     SubFamily: Lycaeninae    Nilam Subfamily

Family: Lycaenidae      SubFamily: Polyommatinae    Hitam-dan-putih and Biru Groups

Family: Lycaenidae     SubFamily: Aphnaeinae     Barisperak Subfamily

Family: Lycaenidae     SubFamily: Theclinae    Hairstreaks: Varied Groups

Family: Hesperiidae  

Family: Hesperiidae      SubFamily: Coeliadinae   Penusuk/Awl Subfamily

Family: Hesperiidae      SubFamily: Pyrginae    Datar/Flat Subfamily  

Family: Hesperiidae      SubFamily: Hesperiinae    Skipper: Speed-themed Groups

(Or E. hiraca by Ek-Amnuay)   Erionata: Pantas Group

(again)

Results and Discussion

A Checklist of Peninsular Malaysian butterflies with a Malay name to each species is achieved alongside scientific and English names. This is a first of such Checklist for Peninsular Malaysia. Scientific names follow C&P5 and also English names if available, else from other sources. The Malay names were created in a systematic manner and relationship if any  between species as to subfamily and genus or closely related genera is made known.

There are two methods to create a Malay name for a butterfly species:

1. <Subfamily name><Group name><Specific name>

2. <Group name><Subgroup name><Specific name>

Method 1 enables species of a subfamily and group to be identified. For example, Kuning subfamily of Coliadinae, such as, Kuning Rumput Kecil, Eurema brigitta senna, the Small Grass Yellow. Or, Kuning Emigran Lemon, Catopsilia pomona pomona, the Lemon Emigrant.

Themed groups of Method 2 is the next best for association if a subfamily does not have a single subfamily name to apply Method 1.  For example, bird-themed groups of Pierinae with groups such as Kesumba (trogon), and Camar (gull). Examples are, Kesumba Bersolek, Delias hyparete metarete, the Painted Jezebel, and  Camar Oren, Cepora iudith malaya, the Orange Gull.

Method 1 has been applied to 10 subfamilies and Method 2 to 15 subfamilies, of which 13 are themed groups. The two subfamilies that have groups that are too varied to use the themed group names are Theclinae (Family: Lycaenidae), and Satyrinae (Family: Nymphalidae).

Conclusion

According to C&P5, there are 1051 butterfly species for Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore distributed in six families: Papilionidae (45 species), Pieridae (47), Nymphalidae (281), Riodinidae (16), Lycaenidae (402), and Hesperiidae (260). As for Peninsular Malaysia, we have 1048 species (with three species of the 1051 species found only in Singapore; a fourth since being discovered in Johor).

Butterfly species do not have official or already widely used Malay names (except the general Kertas or Surat  for the Nymph butterflies). This makes it easier to create Malay names as proposed by Methods 1 and 2 to achieve the objectives of Malay naming i.e., to create Malay names systematically and to indicate relationships (subfamily and genus/genera) between species, if any. Easier compared to creating Checklists for mammals, birds, and snakes that we have also done.

References

AGC (2012), Attorney General’s Chambers, Wildlife Conservation (Amendment of Schedule) Order 2012. Kuala Lumpur

AOS 2023. American Ornithological Society, American Ornithological Society Will Change the English Names of Bird Species Named After People. https://americanornithology.org/american-ornithological-society-will-change-the-english-names-of-bird-species-named-after-people/    (Accessed 25 December 2023)

Corbet, S.A. and Pendlebury, H.M.  (1992), Butterflies of the Malay Peninsula. 4th edition, edited by J.N. Eliot. Malayan Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur   (C&P4)

Corbet, S.A. and Pendlebury, H.M. (2020), The Butterflies of the Malay Peninsula. 5th edition, edited by GM & NE van der Poorten. Malayan Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur.   (C&P5)

Ek-Amnuay, P. (2012), Butterflies of Thailand. 2nd edition. Amarin Printing and Publishing, Bangkok.

Khew, S.K. (2015). A Field Guide to the Butterflies of Singapore. Ink On Paper, Singapore.

Kirton, L. (2020). A Naturalist’s Guide To Butterflies of Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. John Beaufoy Publishing, Oxford.

Yong, H.S. (1983). Malaysian Butterflies: an introduction. 4th impression, 2000. Tropical Press., Kuala Lumpur.

Websites:

ButterflyCircle: https://butterflycircle.blogspot.com/

Liew, NL. Butterflies of Raub: https://nlliew66butterflies.blogspot.com/

Hoskins, A. https://www.learnaboutbutterflies.com/index.htm

iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/

Savela, Markku: https://www.nic.funet.fi/index/Tree_of_life/warp/lepidoptera-index-e-q.html

Inayoshi, Y. http://yutaka.it-n.jp/piei.html

Inayoshi, Y. http://yutaka.it-n.jp/piei.html

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