This week's butterfly is scantly but confusingly documented: Pachliopta (or Atrophaneura or Papilio) polyphontes, the Sulawesi Rose.
Photo donated to Wikipedia anonymously.
Was this Rose born to blush unseen, and waste its fragrance on the desert air? Possibly. It lives on only a few, relatively small, less populated islands, so it's not been seen by a great number of people. It is not currently believed to be endangered, or especially rare--only out of the way. However, because the Earth's total population of each subspecies and variety is so small, "clearing" forests on any of these islands could still endanger--or destroy--a unique kind of butterfly. As efforts to protect North America's Monarch butterflies really aim to protect the dozens of other butterflies that share Monarch habitat as well, so efforts to protect Atrophaneura jophon and other endangered residents of Sulawesi forests will, it is hoped, also protect polyphontes.
According to Google, the most interesting thing about the Sulawesi Rose is that it seems to be the model for a mimic variety, Papilio polytes. We shall come to Papilio polytes presently--some time next year, or the next year after that. It's one of the Black-bodied Swallowtails, which are generally less toxic to birds than the Red-bodied Swallowtails, but get some survival benefit from their resemblance. P. polytes shares with P. memnon the nickname "Mormon," a stale old joke based on that religious group's having temporarily allowed polygamy. Butterflies don't have family lives in any case. Male "Mormon" butterflies don't have the extended lifespan that would allow a male butterfly to be more polygamous than usual; the average Monarch or Antiopa probably mates more times than the Mormon, because those and several other species fly longer. While male Mormons are fairly plain, though large, females can have any of several dozen different looks, some very gaudy. A field guide making any pretense to equal representation has to show the male "Mormon" surrounded by pages full of possible mates. Har har very har. Anyway, P. polytes who mimic Pachlioptas share territory with the Common Rose, P. aristolochiae, but they look more like P. polyphontes. Could this mean that at some time in the past they shared territory with polyphontes?
All we know for sure is that, although black-bodied and red-bodied swallowtails coexist peaceably, they do not crossbreed. But somebody had to test some young, inexperienced birds' willingness to bite into any black butterfly they found, and determine that Papilio polytes seems to taste nasty, at least, all by itself. Its mimicry of Pachliopta polyphontes (or should I say "her" mimicry, since only females inherit the look) is Mullerian rather than Batesian. Birds will avoid eating other dark butterflies after eating a "Mormon."
There are four currently recognized subspecies of polyphontes: the primary or "nominate" P. polyphontes polyphontes, P.p. aipytos, P.p. rosea, and P.p. sejanus. Each is found on different islands. This ought logically to make the three other subspecies the Selajar, Sula, and Halmahera Roses, since they live there rather than on Sulawesi (Celebes), but nobody seems to be picky about this. A subspecies name bugius was proposed in 1911 for the polyphontes on Bugis island; some sources still recognize bugius as at least a distinct variety if not a subspecies. Other subspecies names have been proposed but are no longer used.
Polyphontes was first described, rather hesitantly, by Boisduval in 1836. Funet.fi has preserved a picture of his exact words, which just about fill up my computer screen, at https://archive.org/details/histoirenaturell01bois/page/268/mode/1up?view=theater&q=polyphontes :
"Taille de Polydorus , dont il est très-voisin , avec les ailes notablement plus étroites et proportionnellement plus allongées. Les supérieures ayant la partie claire plus blanchâtre , striée de raies longitudmales plus obscures que dans Polydorus , et coupée par des nervures plus noires et fortement dilatées. Ailes inférieures ayant des dents plus obtuses et une queue noire spatulée plus large; leur milieu offrant une tache orbiculaire blanchâtre , divisée par de grosses nervures noires en six taches oblongues , dont une plus grande dans la cellule discoïdale , et cinq en dehors ; une rangée marginale de lunules rougeàtres fortement obscurcies de noirâtre ; point de tache anale rouge fondue avec la tache blanche la plus interne. Dessous des secondes ailes d'un noir de velours , avec la même tache discoïdale qu'en dessus , et une rangée marginale de cinq lunules , diminuant graduellement de grandeur à partir de l'angle anal ; les trois plus rapprochées du bord abdominal sont d'un rouge carmin tendre, la quatrième blanche un peu teintée de rose, les deux dernières blanches ; une petite tache rouge sur le bord de l'échancrure anale. Corps à peu près comme dans Polydorus , sinon que les côtés de la poitrme et du prothorax ne sont pas rouges.
Célèbes. — Collection de M. Payen de Bruxelles. — Ce Papillon n'est peut-être qu'une variété locale de Polydorus."
(I read the above as: Shape like polydorus, its near neighbor, with the wings noticeably straighter and longer. The forewings have the clear parts paler, striped with longitudinal rays darker than polydorus, punctuated by nerves (veins) darker and wider. The hind wings have more blunt points and bigger, spatulate black tails; they have a white spot in the middle, divided by black veins into six oblong patches, the biggest in the discoid cellule and five surrounding it; a border of dark reddish crescents, and a red spot melting into the innermost white patch. Undersides of the wings are velvety black, with the same discoid spot as above, and a margin of five lunules gradually diminishing in size away from the tail end of the body; the three closest to the body are of a soft carmine red, the fourth white tinted with rose, the last white, a little red spot near the tail of the body. Body similar to polydorus, but the edges of the thorax are not red. Celebes--Collection of Mr. Payen of Brussels--This butterfly may be no more than a local variation of polydorus.)
Walter Rothschild, apparently reading the word Google and I see as locale as large ("a large variety of polydorus"), pronounced:
"This species is considered by several entomologists [cf Snellen (I.e.). Pagenstecher (i.e.)] as a tailed variety of P. polydorus h. ; the two insects have, however, nothing to do with one another. The fore- and hindwings of polydorus and polyphontes are differently shaped ; the abdominal fold of the male is very small in polyphontes, rather large in polydorus ; the polyphontes from Ternate and Halmahera have an orange red front of the head, whereas in polydorus from the Northern Moluccas the head is entirely black.
The specimens from the Northern Moluccas do not seem to be sub.specifically distinguishable from those from Celebes, Sulla Islands, and Talaut, though my specimens show a very slight difference in the colour of the head, the latter being more or less blackish just before the antennae in the Celebes, Sulla, and Talaut individuals, whereas the front of the head is of a uniform reddish colour in the examples from the Northern Moluccas...
Papilio polyphontes var. rosea Oberthiir, El. d'Enl. IV. p. 113. .sub n, 59 (1879) (Celebes).
Discal patch of hindwings red instead of white. This form is known only from Celebes."
Polyphontes are fairly large butterflies, typical wingspans about four inches, while polydorus average only about three inches, so "a large variety of polydorus" makes sense and may be what was printed in some other edition of Boisduval's article.
Polyphontes was the name of at least three characters in ancient Greek literature. Given the long-running joke of naming the Atrophaneuras after characters associated with funerals, the one intended was probably a prince killed in battle, but the name could also have been chosen for its literal meaning, "many-slayer."
Little seems to be known about the life cycle of this butterfly. Several photos of adults have been posted at https://uk.inaturalist.org/taxa/533812-Pachliopta-polyphontes/browse_photos, but no photos of the young. How long adults normally live, how many generations in a year...no online source says.
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