Graphium encelades is a tailless butterfly with Swallowtail-type wing structure, found only in Sulawesi. Some have called it the Sulawesi Zebra but most sources don't seem to think it needs an English name. It is more spotted than striped, though some photos show stripes on some individuals.
Photo from Inaturalist.
Here is an illustrated report on one of this butterfly's habitats, a forest it shares with other distinctive animals, plants, and birds.
Graphium encelades has appeared on postage:
Another painting of this butterfly was used on a stamp issued by the Turks and Caicos Islands.
The species was named by J.B. Boisduval in 1836. Here's what the Internet makes of what he wrote about it:
"
222 — Papilio Encelades, Boisd.
Taille et port de Deucalion^ avec les ailes supérieures plus sinuées. Dessus de toutes les ailes d'un blanc pur, avec une bordure noire assez large , dentée intérieurement , élargie au sommet des supérieures ; ces dernières ayant en outre la côte noire, et trois raies longitudinales de la même couleur en forme de veines dans la cellule discoïdale. La bordure des quatre ailes divisée par ime rangée de petites lunules blancbâtres obsolètes.Dessous des ailes blanchâtre, avec la bordure, les nervures, le bord externe des inférieures et la base des supérieures largement brunâtres ; les lunules marginales beaucoup plus distinctes qu'en dessus ; un gros point blanchâtre à la base 'des inférieures, qui sont en outre légèrement dentées. Corps noirâtre , avec le prothorax et la poitrine ponctués de blanc ; le thorax garni de poils d'un gris blanchâtre ; l'abdomen d'un blanc jaunâtre sur les côtés , avec une raie ventrale de la même couleur.
Moluques. — Collection de M. Payen. — Très-rare. Nous ne connaissons que le mâle.
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Photo by Arex.
"Shape and bearing of Graphium deucalion with the upper wings thinner. Above, all wings of pure white with a wide black border, toothed on the inside, enlarged at the summit of the fore wings; these having the outside corner black, and three longitudinal stripes of the same color in the form of the veins in the discoid cell. The border of the four wings divided by a row of dim little whitish crescent spots. Underside of the wings whitish with the border, the nerves, the outer edge of the hind wings and the base of the forewings largely brownish; the marginal crescents much more distinct than on the upper side; a big whitish spot at the base of the hind wings, which are slightly toothed. Body blackish, with the prothorax and chest spotted in white; the thorax garnished by hairs of a whitish grey; the abdomen of a yellowish white on the sides, with a central stripe of the same color" is what I make of it.
It would have been very rare indeed in the Moluques, or Moluccas, where individuals found would have been strays. It's unusual enough in Sulawesi, though in its habitat and season it's not uncommon.
Walter Rothschild wrote in 1895 that the female was still unknown, but the habitat was known, by that time, to be Sulawesi, which was then spelled "Celebes." A photo of a museum's collection suggests that, as in many species where the female butterfly is unknown for a long time after the male has been documented, females look similar to males, with or without slight differences in color patterns.
Most photos of this butterfly on the Internet are taken at puddles, and show males drinking in large groups, sometimes with other encelades, sometimes in mixed flocks. A guess that females spend most of their time in the woods, looking for young tender leaves of aromatic plants on each of which one female lays one egg, has not been confirmed.
The life cycle of this species is not documented.
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