This week's butterfly, or butterflies, are obscure enough that nobody is positive whether they are one species or two. The main difference between them that humans have identified is that Graphium empedocles is found on Malaysian islands, and Graphium empedovana is found in the Philippines and Indonesia. Specimens found on different islands show variations that have been tentatively identified as different subspecies, but as most Swallowtail species show individual variations and few of these two Graphiums have been collected, much less reared, most sources ignore the question of subspecies.
Photo by Mroseup, taken in December on We island (Indonesia).
Like Graphium codrus, they have strange reflective white wing scales that make photos look like "out-takes" until we realize that that blurry white gloss is a natural feature of the species. The upper surface of the hind wings, especially, seems to glow with silver-white light. Some say both species should be classified as subspecies of codrus, although in empedocles and empedovana the reflected light seems more diffused across the hind wings rather than concentrated along the inside edge of the wing. Nobody seems to know enough about empedocles, empedovana, or codrus to be sure.
Anyway, empedocles has been in use as a name for a good long time.
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P.E.A. alis caudatis fufcis: anticis fafcia abbreuiata maculari viridi , pofticis fubtus maculis duabus anguli ani.
Habitat in India orientali Muf. Oom. Banks.
Magnus. Antennae nigrae. Caput et thorax fufca. Corpus lana alba tedium. Alae anticae vtrinque fufcae fafcia in medio abbreuiata e maculis fex viridibus, ^ quarum quarta et fexta ininutiftimae. Pofticae caudatae fupra fufcap bafi pallidiores. Apex caudae al.bicat. Subtus fuscae angulo and maculis duabus atris lunula rufa.
"
That was Fabricius, in the eighteenth century. If the computer would paste the antique type in as a graphic rather than trying to transcribe it as text, Fabricius' words might be easier to read. "Wings tailed, dark; forewings, bands of green spots; hindwings, below, two spots angled toward the back end. Habitat in east India (probably abbreviation for some place name). Large. Black antennae. Head and mid-section dark. Body hair fine and white. Forewings dark, bands of six green spots in the middle, the fourth and sixth spots small. Hindwings tailed, upper surface dark with white glow. Upper surface of tails glows white. Under surface dark, two black-rimmed red moon-shaped spots," is what I make of it, not because my self-taught Latin is to be relied on but because that description sounds like what the photos of this species tell us.
A more recent site explains that by "east India" Fabricius meant more specifically Malaysia. It has not been recently found in India; it's still on the list of butterflies found in Thailand, but the list mentions that it's "known from one specimen," there, which may have been a stray rather than a resident.
Most butterflies' wings are, technically, colorless, owing all their color to the scales with which they are covered, but some have some pale color under the scales. Rothschild observed of Graphium empedocles that "From Papilio codrus" (the Graphiums did not always have their own genus name; in the nineteenth century they were called Papilio) "it differs in the spots of the forewings being devoid of scales above and below; in P. codrus the spots are scaled on the underside."
Photo by Chengailim, taken in February, near Kuala Lumpur. In order to get a clear outline of the butterfly's reflective wings, the photographer had to sacrifice focus on the pebbles in the background.
Photo by Raga_gtsr, taken in November on Java island. In some lights the darker color can look black or gray rather than brown. In some lights the brighter color can look yellow rather than green.
So, although this is not the biggest or prettiest or most popular butterfly species, the possibility remains for it to make islanders famous. Real scientific discoveries can be made by local people, like this butterfly watcher on Singapore...the "fair use" rule would make it legal for this web site to use his photo of Graphium empedovana, but it really deserves to be seen in its original context, along with all the other butterflies photographed on the same walk.
Empedocles was a real historical character, noted in ancient Greek history as the first to talk about the theory that everything was made up of four "elements." If he'd said that all material things exist in one or sometimes two of four conditions, people would have blathered less, later, about having proved him wrong. We now think earth, air, water, and fire are made up of different elements in the condition of solid, gas, liquid, or conversion to energy.
Empedovana is found in literature as the name of the butterfly species; if it had some meaning in Greek free translation software doesn't show that meaning. The name may have been coined in 1941 as a compound between empedocles and some other species name. G. empedovana is better known than G. empedocles, and some authorities prefer to regard empedocles as an old name for a subspecies or type of empedovana. Some prefer to lump these species together under a new name, batjanensis, commemorating a place where they were found.
Although its wings are usually described as green and brown, G. empedovana is sometimes called the Malayan Yellow Bottle, and sometimes Yellow Bluebottle. It has some resemblance to a group of species called Bluebottles, but lacks their blue color.
Though always somewhat rare, these Graphiums are considered to be "of least concern," unlikely to go extinct. (There are some causes for concern about them; see https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/121979208/122602441 .)They are good-sized butterflies with wing spans typically over three inches. This makes them, if not the biggest or rarest butterflies in the South Asian islands, the biggest and rarest in their species-group, and potentially the trophies of a specialist's carcass collection. Google lists several carcass collection sites that offer specimens of this butterfly.
They pollinate some local flowers. Males are also composters; one forum mentions finding empedovana on fresh animal digest. They are found in and near forests, where females presumably lurk in the shade, spending most of their time carefully placing eggs on host plant leaves, as most Graphiums do.
Photo by Glorious Begum, taken in July in "North Malaysia."
Not much is known about the life cycle of this or these species, but the food plant for G. empedovana is thought to be Hernandia peltata.
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