Graphium megarus is black or dark brown and white, so some people wanted to call it a Zebra. "It looks more spotted than striped," someone must have said. "Well, there we are...a Spotted Zebra!"
Photo from Thai Butterfly Trips.
Most often associated with China, also found in several Asian countries and even in Australia, the Spotted Zebra is not believed to be endangered. It's called common in China and rare in India. In India it is protected by law.
Megarus was a character in ancient Greek mythic history, said to have been the founder of the city-state called Megara and its surrounding territory, Megaris. The most logical reason for naming this butterfly after him is the tradition of naming Swallowtail species after characters in literature.
Photo from Thelittleman. Males do some composting, but both sexes pollinate.
Photo by Janmar, taken in March in Thailand. Males sip water from shallow puddles, alone or in large mixed flocks.
Some instructive photos of Graphium megarus at puddle parties with look-alike species are at:
These butterflies live in damp tropical forests, where they fly high among the treetops. They like evergreen forests with red sandy soil and a good deal of rainfall. Caterpillars eat leaves of small trees in the Annonaceae family.
They most often fly in March and April. Adult wingspans range from two to three inches. Though large by North American standards, this is the smallest species in the Graphium subgenus Paranticopsis. The Paranticopsis species are thought to be mimics of the Danaid genus Parantica; thus, aside from their Swallowtail wing structure and iridescent pale blue to white spots, in some ways they look more like our Monarchs than like our Swallowtails.
Males and females look alike; if there are consistent visible differences they are slight and have not been documented.
Different subspecies have been identified including Graphium megarus megarus, G.m. megapenthes, G.m. fleximacula, G.m. martinus, G.m. mendicus, G.m. sagittiger, G.m. tiomanensis, G.m. tistaensis. G.m. similis, and G.m. marthae. Not all sources recognize any or all of these as distinct subspecies. Rothschild, for example, recognized only megarus and fleximacula as distinct subspecies:
Differences in wing patterns certainly exist, but how consistently they are found in specific places is debated.
Graphium megarus megarus:
Photo by Milind_bhakare, taken in April in India.
Graphium megarus megapenthes:
Photo by Oleg Sartorin, taken in March in Thailand.
The early stages of this species' life seem undocumented in cyberspace.
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