Butterfly of the Week: Spotted Jay

Graphium arycles is the Spotted Jay because it's in the group of Graphiums that have been nicknamed Jays and because it's spotted. The structure of its wings puts it in the Swallowtail family, although its hind wings don't have tails.

Photo by Oleg Jamiun.

Who or what was Arycles? Google has no information. It sounds like a name from Greek literature, but in the Renaissance some writers made up a few names that sounded Greek or Latin while lacking historical precedents in that language. The name does not seem to have been reused as a human's name recently either. Google unhelpfully tries to correct it to "Pericles." 

Photo by Sl_liew. The colors of butterflies' wings come from iridescent scales; they vary depending on their angle to light. Some of this individual's spots look white and some look green.

Various subspecies classifications have been proposed. Graphium arycles arycles is probably the best known, found in much of southeastern Asia and the nearby islands. In India it's rare, found only in the northeastern states, and although some argue that it's always been rare because it's one of those butterflies that need to be scarce, it is protected by law. Further south and east, presumably where its food plant is more abundant, the butterfly is less rare; how much territory the females need for each egg is not known, but males hang out in large groups. G.a. perinthus is found in the Philippines, and G.a. sphinx is found in Cambodia. The subspecies sphinx has green or yellow spots on its underwings where the others have red. Sphinx is typically bigger than the others, but this is a small species for the Swallowtail family. 

Photo from Wingscales.com. This one was classified as Graphium arycles rama. Some older writers listed rama as a species; some demoted it to a subspecies. Recent documents online don't recognize it at all.

Photo by Stijn_de_Win. As in many Swallowtail species, males spend a lot of time sipping water from shallow puddles or damp mud. Both sexes drink fresh water. Males also drink brackish water. Like many composters, they like salt enough to be positively attracted to human sweat. Females, whose colors are typically lower-contrast than males in many Swallowtail species, flit around the edges of these bachelor groups ("leks") and check out their prospective mates. So this photo looks as if it shows a courting couple...but the life cycle of this butterfly is undocumented, at least on the Internet.

Photo from Khao Sok National Park Thailand. The small one is identified as Discolampa ethion thalimar. 

Not much has been published about this species beyond photos of the adult, usually males at puddles. Photos of the caterpillar are available from a few non-sharers. They show it as a sort of minimalist Swallowtail caterpillar, pale greyish green, resembling an in-folded leaf against the living leaf it is eating, with one small eye spot at each side of the hump, tapering toward the back end. Google found no descriptions or images of the eggs or pupae of this species.