Graphium weiskei is the Purple Spotted Swallowtail because it has pale purple spots. A few sources give it the more fanciful name "Purple Mountain Emperor," and a few simply translate its Latin name as "Weiske's Graphium." Emil Weiske was a nineteenth century naturalist. Another butterfly (in the genus Delias), a bee, and a bird species were also named weiskei in honor of him. Weiskei is most "properly" pronounced like "vye-sky-ee."
Photo by Gancw1 for Inauralist, December, 2024.
Photo by John Lenagan for herpsandbirds.tumblr.com.
Photo by Gan CW on Tumblr. A little actual pigmentation underlies the purple spots, but they can shade to pink or blue or fade to white, depending partly on the light and partly on the individual's condition.
Swallowtail butterflies named after real people or places tend to have been named later, so less information is available about them. Graphium weiskei was named only in 1900. It is common in a small habitat, the higher elevations of New Guinea; few people have actually seen it alive, though its unusual color has generated much interest in pictures and dead bodies.
The underside of the wings, which is more often seen, doesn't look very distinctive, though it may have a faint purplish blush on the upper wing tips. It could be mistaken for Graphium kosii or Graphium gelon or other species. One of its other distinguishing features is that, even for a Swallowtail, it has a big head and stout, furry body.
Photo from Gailhampshire, originally on Flickr, donated to Wikipedia.
It has been found between 4000 and 8000 feet above sea level.
A less than faithful drawing appears on postage from Sao Tome e Principe:
The stamp is for sale at https://touchstamps.com/Stamp/Details/411416/purple-spotted-swallowtail-graphium-weiskei .
The purple color can be conspicuous on a living butterfly:
Photo from papua-insects.nl.
On some male individuals it can fade to periwinkle, or sky-blue like the blue spot on the butterfly shown above, or even white. On females, the black base color can fade to brown, and the purple spot can fade to pink. Even the pink spot makes this a very unusual butterfly.
Here is a slow-motion video of Graphium weiskei startled into flight:
Nothing seems to have been documented about this butterfly's food plants or life cycle. Someone in New Guinea can still become famous by learning about this species.
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