This week's butterfly, Graphium liponesco, is sometimes called the Long-Tailed Striped Swordtail.
Graphium liponesco is not easy to find or photograph, but neither is it impossible. The difficulty is being sure that a photograph really does show G. liponesco. Other species have almost identical wings. Dissecting the body to establish a clear species identity spoils the look of the picture.
The butterflies are similar to Graphium policenes and G. policenoides in most ways. Some sources list both liponesco and policenoides as subspecies of policenes, which accounts to some extent for the scarcity of useful information about liponesco online. Graphium liponesco is almost identical to biokoensis; the easiest way to tell them apart is, according to Oskar Brattstrom, where they are. Graphium liponesco are somewhat rare. They live in the sub-Saharan forest and tend to avoid humans. Only liponesco are found west of the Niger river, and only biokoensis east of it. Experts say, after cutting up dead butterflies, that there are consistent, significant differences in the body in addition to what might not always be a clear, consistent variation in the stripes.
In fact, according to some sources, there is another species with almost identical wings, Graphium bouyeri, that can "easily" be distinguished from G. liponesco when they are dissected. Most humans probably prefer not to know.
The story of how the species identities of Graphium policenes, G. policenoides, and G. liponesco were sorted out to the present level of understanding is told in this paper:
More of the currently available data about this group of species is found in this reference paper; phoros of G. liponesco start on page 30:
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