People like this week's butterfly species, but they don't know much about it. It is not common, but not known to be endangered. It has two English names, the Elegant Lady (because a group of similar butterflies are called the Ladies, and because it's "elegantly" dressed in well-matched neutral colors) and the Milky Graphium (because its wings are "splashed" with milky white). It's been called the national butterfly of Nigeria.
Photo from INaturalist. The darker band at the edge of the hind wings can be almost black, like the patch where each wing joins the body. Undersides may be a warmer shade of brown than the more grayish upperside. The wingspan of the male museum specimens collected was 3 to 3.5 inches. Photos of living Elegant Ladies are hard to find, but one can be seen if you click through to page 20 of this beautiful PDF:
Its scientific name is Graphium hachei. There are two subspecies, Graphium hachei hachei and G.h. moebii. Hache and Moebius are family names. The subspecies moebii is sometimes also listed as Suffert's Graphium, suggesting that some Mr. Suffert might have named it after some Professor Moebius, but Google is not showing any explanations. Funet shows early reports of this butterfly as descriptions of male specimens only, published in German. The females, as well as the early stages, remain undocumented.
These butterflies are found in several adjacent countries on the western side of Africa. Click here to see a map.
They are found all through the year but populations seem to divide into three-month generations, with declining reports of adult butterflies in March, June, September, and December, and increases in January, April, July, and October. As a sub-equatorial species, these butterflies are most often seen in January.
They resemble Graphium adamastor, G. almansor, and the other Ladies but nothing seems to be known about their lives. Marcot's photo documents that males hang out at puddles with other mineral-salt-craving butterflies.
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