Butterfly of the Week: Creamy Graphium

Graphium ucalegon is sometimes called either the Cream Lady or the Sepia Lady, depending on subspecies; it is sometimes called the Twin-Spotted Lady or Twin-Spotted Graphium; most sources that give it an English name call it the Creamy Graphium--and many sources don't mention it at all. Many scientists now think it is the same as Graphium auriger. It is one of the "White Lady" species that all look very much alike. 

Photo by Koenbetjes, who remains uncertain, at the time of writing, whether what person photographed was Graphium ucalegon or Graphium simoni. Some of the dead leaves clogging the puddle are Annonaceae. 

Ucalegon was a minor character in the Iliad. He was a respected citizen, a friend of the king of Troy. His house was destroyed by fire when the Greeks swarmed out of the Trojan Horse and started to burn the city of Troy. The fire alerted his neighbor, Aeneas, to the attack. The Renaissance fad for referring to Greco-Roman literature whenever possible caused some poets to write "his Ucalegon" when they meant "his neighbor, whose house was on fire." Occasions to use this name-as-word have been few and far between but the poet Edwin Arlington Robinson called it his favorite word, anyway. Thus "Ucalegon" came to be listed in some dictionaries as an English word, though it never became common enough to be written without its capital letter. The original Greek spelling might be more closely transliterated as Oukalegon, with an accent mark over the E.

More is known about this butterfly's name than about the butterfly itself. Its wingspan can be close to four inches. It is found in Angola, Cameroon, the Republic and Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Gabon, Guinea, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda, in forests. Adults usually fly just before the beginning of the rainy season, presumably to give caterpillars access to new leaves. Males gather at puddles and also seek the minerals they need in rotting fish. 

Photo from the African Butterfly Database.

Females spend most of their time in the forests, placing their eggs. These butterflies are not often seen and, when they are seen, are not easily identified. Though they are described as "particularly uncommon" in Uganda, and some local populations are known to be threatened by habitat loss, as a species they are neither believed to be threatened nor even considered all that uncommon. Specific habitats are known, and the same small numbers of individuals are observed at each habitat site when they are counted. 

Their foodplant is not known, but it is probably abundant in the "sand dune forest" along the Congo River in Angola where SzabolcsSafian photographed this puddle party:

Nevertheless, three subspecies of ucalegon are still recognized by those who recognize ucalegon as a separate species: Graphium ucalegon ucalegon, G.u. fonteinei, and G.u. schoutedeni. 

Photo by Sven Bontenbal.