Graphium poggianus, Pogge's Lady or Pogge's Graphium, is a name found on lots of older lists. Not much information about it is available online, though, because scientists are questioning whether it's really a distinct species.
Specimen in Belgium's Royal Museum of Central Africa; photograph found at Funet.fi. The individual shown is male. Gender differences, if there are any, are not discussed in available documents.
There is some controversy about what else it might be a subspecies of. It is a little larger than Graphium deliae, not much, and some scientists write about Graphium poggianum deliae while others write about Graphium deliae poggianus. G. poggianus is also similar enough that some authors identify it with G. kigoma, G. almansor, G. fulleri, G. auriger, and G. rileyi. As noted in previous posts, these species all have a similar look, with enough room for variation to make it hard to tell species from subspecies variations. There is room for African students to become famous by sorting out exactly how different these butterflies are from one another.
The name Papilio poggianus was given by Eduard Honrath, in 1884, to a butterfly found in the upper southern part of the African continent--below the westward bulge, on the map, but not extending to the tip. It was found in what are now called Angola, Congo, and Zambia. Honrath also said it was found in Guinea; this seems to have been an error. Honrath said its wingspan was on average 7.8 cm, a little over 3 inches.
He described its spots at some length--in German--suggesting that they were its distinguishing feature.
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Larger [than related species], the length of the forewing about 48 mm., the markings whitish; forewing without submarginal spots; in the cell, opposite to cellule 3, a large transverse spot which reaches the front margin of the cell and is united with three long discal spots in cellules 2-—4; the discal spot in cellule 2 is very long, almost reaching the margin, but narrow, so that it only covers the anterior part of the cellule; the discal spots in 1 a and 1 b consequently form a free hindmarginal spot, which almost reaches the margin, but is rather far removed from the base; the discal spots in 6 and 8 arranged almost exactly as in the other species; the transverse band of the hindwing broad, almost reaching the base and the apex of the cell; the broad dark submarginal band in each of cellules 2—-5 with two long whitish, somewhat irregular streaks. — Angola.
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Is that an exact English translation of Honrath's original description, or Seitz's "corrected" description, or both? I don't read German well enough to say.
Anyway, although Graphiums with white and red-brown spots on their wings are widely distributed throughout most of Africa, this particular pattern turned out to be rare. People have found specimens that fitted the description, but not often. The scarcity of Graphium poggianus led scientists to suspect that it might not be even a subspecies, but an occasional mutation--and they've guessed, but not confirmed any guesses, about what it's a mutation of.
The main argument for keeping poggianus on the lists as a separate species was that the caterpillars looked different from those of similar-looking butterflies. Adam Cotton summarizes the argument that even this may be a variation produced by weather conditions:
African scientists discuss the possible reclassification of African Graphiums:
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