Moving down the list of Graphium species in alphabetical order, we come to Graphium protensor, an old name now considered to describe the same thing as Graphium sarpedon, and to Graphium pylades, an old name now considered to describe the same thing as Graphium angolanus. These names still appear on some checklists but are no longer given pages at the science sites. The next species name still in active use is Graphium ramaceus, also known as Pendlebury's Zebra. It is sometimes also called the Malayan Zebra, but its claim to this name is more debatable since other Malayan butterflies have black and white stripes.
Photo by SL Liew.
It does not resemble the species Americans call Zebra Swallowtails. It is one of the species that are classified as Swallowtails, because of the structure of their wings, but that seem to mimic some of the more predator-toxic Brush-Footed butterflies. There are scientists who think it deserves to be classified in a separate genus from the Graphiums and want to call it Paranticopsis ramaceus, but so far this step has not been taken by the scientific community as a whole. (Paranticopsis refers to their resemblance to the Brush-Footed genus Parantica.) But Pendlebury's Zebra does have black, or brown, and white stripes on its upper wings. On its under wings, which are more often visible, it may have white stripes or only white spots.
Which species mimics which, exactly? Graphium ramaceus looks very similar to some tailless Swallowtails in the genus Papilio, as well as to various Paranticas and other Brush-Footed Butterflies. One observer wrote that butterfly species can sometimes be said to form "rings of Mullerian (reciprocal) mimicry." One species' habits may make it most vulnerable to one predator against which it has evolved a chemical defense.
It is found in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Burma/Myanmar. Never really common, it may be most easily found in March and September, with some of each generation sometimes appearing in the month before or lingering into the month after their generation's seasonal irruption. Families may occupy the same territory for several seasons; a spot where these butterflies were found last season can be a good place to look for them.
Its wingspan is typically about 3 inches.
It is a popular species, and has been commemorated on postage stamps:
Several different scientists described what seems to be this species as a new species discovered by them. It was first placed in the genus Papilio, from which the genus Graphium had not yet been separated, and was named Papilio schoenbergianus, P. leucothoe, P. dealbatus, and P. interjectus.
Why does one kind of butterfly have so many names? Individuals' wing markings vary. The meanings the names may have had for the scientists who gave them to this species may never be known.
Ramaceus is not recognized by Google as the name of a character in literature. It is Latin and means "branch." It was proposed as a name for this species in 1872, about twelve years after another Graphium had been named after Rama, or Ram, a hero of Indian literature. The name must have seemed like an especially neat choice since it can refer to the now abandoned name Graphium rama, or to the branchlike pattern of Graphium ramaceus's stripes, as well as being, Westwood wrote, "an anagram of the name of" the similar-looking Graphium macareus.
Pendlebury is the name of several scientists, none really famous and none remembered for work done before 1872, and of a place now described as a suburb of Manchester in England. Homesick Englishmen did sometimes name Asian and African species after their home towns.
Leucothoe, from Greek words meaning "white" and "quick," was the name of several real and fictitious people in ancient Greece, including a princess and a goddess in literature.
Interjectus means "thrown in between," in Latin, like the words called "interjections," which are thrown in between sentences to expres emotional reactions like "Oh!' or "Aha!"
Dealbatus means "having the white taken away" in Latin.
Inayoshi, Yuka, and Sachiyo are people's names, as is Schoenberg.
There are subspecies; for this species, typical specimens of each subspecies are easy to recognize on sight.
A subspecies Graphium ramaceus leucothoe is no longer listed at new science sites, but specimens of leucothoe are still identified in some museums.
Photo from The National History Museum, nhm.ac.uk.
A subspecies interjectus was also described in 1893, but this name also seems to have gone out of use.
Apparently the subspecies most often observed is Graphium ramaceus pendleburyi..
Photo by SL Liew, February 2022.
Photo by Antonio Giudici.
Graphium ramaceus ramaceus, the nominate subspecies, has not been so well documented as G.r. pendleburyi.
Photo by Dhfischer, Sarawak, March 2012.
In addition to G.r. ramaceus and G.r. pendleburyi, most scientists recognize the subspecies Graphium ramaceus inayoshii, but it is even more poorly documented than G.r. ramaceus. It has been given the English name "Obscure Zebra." It coexists with G.r. ramaceus. Its name honors Yutaka Inayoshi.
Photo from wingscales.com.
Subspecies yukae and sachiyoae were described in 2020.
As in many other Swallowtail species, the males are often found in large mixed groups sipping water, preferably brackish rather than fresh water, at puddles. They are composter species; their bodies absorb excess mineral salts from water and excrete purer water, more beneficial to most plants, back into the soil. This is one of their minor services to humankind, along with helping to feed predators that remove pest species from crop fields and returning nutrients to the soil in the form of frass. Their major service is, of course, pollinating flowering plants, sometimes as the only regular pollinator of some plants whose leaves are mildly toxic but whose fruits humans can eat.
Photo by SL Liew. These drinking buddies get some survival benefit from being part of a big mixed crowd. The minerals they ingest make it possible for them to mate, and sometimes females flit about the edge of a group, waiting for a male to feel ready to flit off with her. Female Swallowtails tend to eclose from their pupal shells full of eggs, eager to get their eggs fertilized and begin laying them. In species where males and females look alike it is possible to identify the female in a couple by her egg-stuffed shape.
Although butterflies are among the animal species that most vividly illustrate genetic gender confusion, they have a strong division of sex roles. Generally only male butterflies compost; females get their minerals from contact with males. (Occasionally an unmated female will sip brackish water, apparently in the hope of starting the biological cycle that unburdens her of all those eggs, but in the normal course of events female butterflies drink only pure water, flower nectar, or fruit juice.) Female Swallowtails spend most of their lives finding suitable places for each egg, which in many species needs to be deposited several yards from any other eggs. Many live in the treetops in dense forests and are still unknown, or barely known, to science. Graphium ramaceus is one of the species in which the female and young have yet to be described.
Male Swallowtails' appetite for salt, however, can make them a little too friendly with humans.
Photo by Jaceyc, March 2025.
No comments:
Post a Comment