This week's butterfly is not especially rare or endangered, within its limited range, but neither the butterfly nor its range has been well documented. It is found in the south Pacific islands sometimes called the Bismarck Archipelago, including New Guinea and several smaller islands. Although its primary habitat is small islands where relatively little human activity takes place, the species has been found visiting Thailand, Borneo, Sumatra, Singapore, and the Philippines too. Beyond its resemblance to three other Graphiums (wallacei, hicetaon, and sandawanum) very little has been written about it. It's common enough, though, to be mentioned in tour company literature as one of the exotic sights people can expect to see on a tour of these islands.
It has not yet been well documented by photographers. Pictures of this species are of museum specimens.
Photos from Swallowtails.net, showing upper and lower sides of wings. The wingspan is usually about three inches; females are slightly larger than males.
It was named after a part-time naturalist, the Reverend Doctor George Brown, not for its color--but, fortuitously, its color does happen to be brown, or a brownish black that fades to brown. It has the Swallowtail wing structure, but not the "swallow tails" on the hind wings. George Brown was an English-born resident of New Zealand. His visits to the islands were officially missionary journeys, with the objective of identifying places where mission churches might b tolerated. When he had any time to spare, he observed, collected, and documented island wildlife. He sent butterfly and other specimens back to rich collectors in England, who wrote them up in the official records, and was rewarded by having a few things, such as this butterfly, named after him.
More may be known about George Brown, today, than about any of the dozen or so butterflies he was the first to collect. (Most are now regarded as subspecies of butterflies that had been documented on bigger, more familiar islands.) No ordinary British clergyman, content to sip tea, raise funds, and hope to marry a rich parishioner's daughter, Brown climbed mountains and made first contact with people who had never seen an Englishman before. He was credited with rescuing the wife of a cannibal chief. The chief accused his wife of talking to other men, violating tribal customs, and had begun trying to beat her to death when Brown approached the settlemen. Brown bought the badly injured woman for a steel axe head and had her injuries treated, but apparently she didn't live long anyway. Such incidents made Brown many enemies but he persisted in travelling and preaching in spite of credible threats that local people would beat him to death and eat him. (They did not have big pots, but roasted prey, including criminals and foreigners, on open fires.)
The adventure didn't end there. Another cannibal chief, perhaps hoping for more axe heads, murdered four Fijians from Brown's party; his village roasted and ate them, and told Brown they would do the same to the Samoan and White people in the party who had planned to come out and join the Fijians. In a burst of indignation Brown organized a party of Fijian, Samoan, British and New Zealand men to execute the wrath of God on the cannibal village, burning all the buildings and killing some of the men. His fellow Christians told Brown it would be better not to waste missionary effort on such people. They exonerated him of blame for his private act of war, however, sympathizing with his feelings about his Fijian colleagues.
Graphium browni has one known food plant: Annona mercuriata, a small tropical fruit tree. Unlike some Swallowtails this species is said to stay in the deep woods where it is rarely seen by humans. It looks a bit like a dead leaf, especially in deep shade. It is more cautious about going out to drink water, clean or brackish, than many Swallowtails are.
Instead of "puddling" with all the other single male butterflies in the neighborhood male browni choose a territory on the edge of the forest, in a clearing, and fly at anything that enters their territory. Eventually a female of their species does. After mating the female flits back into the woods to find suitable leaves for the caterpillars. The male would mate again if he could, but he probably can't, because, like all large monophagous butterflies, this species is well dispersed.
These butterflies fly fast and startle easily enough that little has been written about their behavior, or their occasional meetings with humans. The early stages of their lives are unknown.
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