Not much information is available online about Graphium policenoides. That's because even its scientific name merely describes it as shaped like Graphium policenes. Some sources mention that it's also very similar to Graphium liponesco and to G. biokoensis.
Photo from the Belgian Biodiversity Information Facility.
In English, some African scientists named it the Gabon Striped Swordtail, but people are not familiar enough with it to have made this a "common" name.
Found in Cameroon, Congo, and Gabon, Graphium policenoides has two different wing patterns. One, sometimes called subspecies nigrescens or "darkening," has much darker wings, mostly black with only a narrow band of pale spots. The other, sometimes called G.p. policenoides, looks more like Graphium policenes, which was last week's butterfly. The spots are only slightly different. To be sure that these were distinct species, at first it was necessary to kill and dissect the butterfly; internal parts are different enough that policenes and policenoides don't crossbreed, though they live in the same places. Once the different species identities were established, however, people who had studied policenoides said that it can't be mistaken for anything else, close up.
Torben B. Larsen explains the differences among Graphium policenes, G. policenoides, and G. liponesco:
Nevertheless, people seem to feel less confident about identifying photos of Graphium policenoides on the wing. The butterfly is not known to be endangered, and dead specimens are offered for sale, but pictures of it seem to be taken in museums.
It is not easily photographed while living. It lives in deep dark woods and rarely comes out. Museum specimens are usually males caught at puddles, but policenoides doesn't spend nearly as much time at puddles as policenes does. Larsen suggested that living in wet forests gave them less need to come out and seek water, fresh or brackish.
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