Monday, May 19, 2025

Butterfly of the Week: Graphium Fulleri

Graphium fulleri is a very debatable species. Entomologists debate whether it really is a distinct species and, if so, what it ought to be called. In English it's called Riley's Swallowtail, although it doesn't have swallowtails and Graphium rileyi is a different butterfly (though thought to be "closely related"). Why not Fuller's Swallowtail? Who knows? In Latin it's found on some lists as Graphium fulleri ucalegonides, on others as Graphium ucalegonides fulleri, and some scientists list other subspecies names for Graphium fulleri.


All available photos are of museum specimens, but living butterflies are not described as much more colorful than the museum pieces. This one is, according to GBIF.org, on display at a museum in Cameroon.

W.J. Holland wrote that fulleri differs from ucalegonides "in having the median band of light spots on the fore wing widely interrupted, in not having a large whitish spot at the lower outer angle of the cell of the fore wing, and in having a series of submarginal spots in both fore and hind wings."

It is part of a group of species that all look and behave very much alike: Graphium abri, adamastor, agamedes, almansor, auriger, aurivilliusi, hachei, kigoma, olbrechtsi, poggianus, rileyi, schubotzi, simoni, ucalegon, and ucalegonides are all similar enough that people hesitate to post photos of them on the Internet. Wikipedia and several science sites identify this species with drawings rather than photos. In the e-book on African Graphiums at Metamorphosis.org, they are lumped together at the back, with lists of references but no proper descriptions or photos.

It has a few alternate names. Since being described as Papilio fulleri in 1883, it's been reassigned to the genus Graphium or Arisbe, and species names have included boulleti, foersterius, sanganus, sangonoides, stetteni, and weberi as well as ucalegonides.

Whether it's a species or a subspecies fulleri is not common, and may be endangered, or some subspecies or populations may be. It is found in Cameroon, Chad, both "Congo" countries, Gabon, and Guinea. 

For a Swallowtail it's not usually shown looking very glamorous, but some sources say the brown hind wings can shimmer like copper.  

Nothing seems ever to have been published about the life cycle of this species. 

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