Graphium sarpedon
Encyclopedia
Graphium sarpedon, the common bluebottle or blue triangle (Australia), is a species of swallowtail
butterfly found in South
and Southeast Asia
, as well as parts of Australia
. There are approximately 15 subspecies
with differing geographical distributions.
Upperside opaque black. Fore and hind wings crossed from above the tornal area on tho hind to near the apex of the fore wing by a semi-hyaline broad pale blue medial band which is broadest in the middle, more or less greenish and macular anteriorly; the portion of the band that crosses interspaces 6, 7 and 8 on the hind wing white; beyond the band on the hind wing there is a sub-terminal line of blue slender lunules. Underside similar, ground-colour dark brown. Hind wing: a short comparatively broad sub-basal band from costa to sub-costal vein, and the postdiscal area between the medial blue band and the sub-terminal lunules velvety black traversed by the pale veins and transversely, except in interspaces 6 and 7, by narrow crimson lines; lastly, a crimson spot near the tornal angle with an admarginal yellowish-white spot below it. Antenna, head, thorax and abdomen brown, the head and thorax suffused with greenish grey; beneath: the palpi, thorax and abdomen touched with dingy white, the abdomen with two whitish lateral lines.
Male has abdominal fold within grey, furnished with a tuft of long, somewhat stiff white hairs.
Race teredon, Felder. (South India
and Sri Lanka
) is distinguishable in both sexes by the narrower medial band that crosses both fore and hind wing. Colour brighter, the contrast between the green of the upper and the blue of the lower portion of the medial band more vivid. Hind wing more produced posteriorly at apex of vein 3, where it forms an elongate tooth or short tail.
Variously reported with wingspans between 55 and 75 mm, the common bluebottle has black upper wing
s and brown lower wings. Both fore and hind wings are marked by a central spot in the form of a blue or blue-green triangle
, with apex
pointing toward the body.
The common bluebottle is known for quick flight
and rapid reactions. It is difficult to catch.
. The larva
e of the common bluebottle feed on trees of the laurel
family, which includes the cinnamon
tree, and have expanded their range to include cinnamon tree plantation
s. In eastern Australia, they have adapted to a drier subtropical environment, and are commonly seen in suburb
an gardens in Queensland
and New South Wales
.
It has been recorded as a migrant in South India and is known to mud-puddle
during migration. The butterfly has been seen as comprising as much as 5% of the population of migrating butterflies during a 72 hour period in the Nilgiri hills.
The common bluebottle is distributed throughout south and southeast Asia
. Subspecies appear in India
and Sri Lanka
(G. s. sarpedon and teredon), China
and Taiwan
(G. s. semifasciatus and connectens), Japan (G. s. nipponum), Indonesia
and the Solomon Islands
, New Guinea
(G. s. messogis), and Australia
(G. s. choredon).
In India it occurs in Southern India in the Western Ghats
and in the Himalayas
from Kashmir in the west to Myanmar in the east.
The adult common bluebottle feeds on nectar from a variety of flowering herbs. The larva
e feed primarily on the leaves of trees in the families Lauraceae
, Myrtaceae
, Sapotaceae
, and Rutaceae
. In particular, G.s. sarpedon and G.s. teredon often feed on leaves of the cinnamon
bark tree, Cinnamomum zeylanica, or of the Indian laurel
, Litsea sebifera.
The list of larval food plants also include Alseodaphne semecarpifolia, Cinnamomum camphora, Cinnamomum macrocarpum, Cinnamomum malabatrum, Litsea chinensis, Polyalthia longifolia, Miliusa tomentosa, Persea macrantha and Michelia doltospa.
The larvae of G.s. choredon, native to Australia, feed on many native Australian species of genera
Cryptocarya
and Litsea
; and virtually all subspecies feed on leaves of the camphor
tree, Cinnamomum camphori, which is native to China but has been naturalized
throughout southeast Asia.
" Smooth, thickened from the second to the 5th segment and thence decreasing to the end; with two short subdorsal fleshy spines on the 4th segment, between which is a transverse pale yellow line, two shorter spines also on the 2nd and 3rd and two on the anal segment; colour green, with a longitudinal posterior lateral and lower pale yellowish line." (Frederic Moore
quoted in Bingham, 1907)
"Conical, truncated in front; thorax produced into a lengthened obtusely-pointed frontal process." (Frederic Moore
quoted in Bingham, 1907)
Swallowtail butterfly
Swallowtail butterflies are large, colorful butterflies that form the family Papilionidae. There are over 550 species, and though the majority are tropical, members of the family are found on all continents except Antarctica...
butterfly found in South
South Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
and Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
, as well as parts of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. There are approximately 15 subspecies
Subspecies
Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...
with differing geographical distributions.
Description
- See glossaryGlossary of Lepidopteran termsThis glossary describes the terms used in the formal descriptions of insect species, jargon used mostly by professionals or entomologist....
for terms used
Upperside opaque black. Fore and hind wings crossed from above the tornal area on tho hind to near the apex of the fore wing by a semi-hyaline broad pale blue medial band which is broadest in the middle, more or less greenish and macular anteriorly; the portion of the band that crosses interspaces 6, 7 and 8 on the hind wing white; beyond the band on the hind wing there is a sub-terminal line of blue slender lunules. Underside similar, ground-colour dark brown. Hind wing: a short comparatively broad sub-basal band from costa to sub-costal vein, and the postdiscal area between the medial blue band and the sub-terminal lunules velvety black traversed by the pale veins and transversely, except in interspaces 6 and 7, by narrow crimson lines; lastly, a crimson spot near the tornal angle with an admarginal yellowish-white spot below it. Antenna, head, thorax and abdomen brown, the head and thorax suffused with greenish grey; beneath: the palpi, thorax and abdomen touched with dingy white, the abdomen with two whitish lateral lines.
Male has abdominal fold within grey, furnished with a tuft of long, somewhat stiff white hairs.
Race teredon, Felder. (South India
South India
South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...
and Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
) is distinguishable in both sexes by the narrower medial band that crosses both fore and hind wing. Colour brighter, the contrast between the green of the upper and the blue of the lower portion of the medial band more vivid. Hind wing more produced posteriorly at apex of vein 3, where it forms an elongate tooth or short tail.
Variously reported with wingspans between 55 and 75 mm, the common bluebottle has black upper wing
Wing
A wing is an appendage with a surface that produces lift for flight or propulsion through the atmosphere, or through another gaseous or liquid fluid...
s and brown lower wings. Both fore and hind wings are marked by a central spot in the form of a blue or blue-green triangle
Triangle
A triangle is one of the basic shapes of geometry: a polygon with three corners or vertices and three sides or edges which are line segments. A triangle with vertices A, B, and C is denoted ....
, with apex
Apex (geometry)
In geometry, an apex is the vertex which is in some sense the highest of the figure to which it belongs.*In an isosceles triangle, the apex is the vertex where the two sides of equal length meet, opposite the unequal third side....
pointing toward the body.
The common bluebottle is known for quick flight
Flight
Flight is the process by which an object moves either through an atmosphere or beyond it by generating lift or propulsive thrust, or aerostatically using buoyancy, or by simple ballistic movement....
and rapid reactions. It is difficult to catch.
Habitat
Graphium sarpedon is primarily an inhabitant of moist, low-level rain forests (below 1600 m/5000 feet). In these elevations it is usually seen flying just above the tree canopyCanopy (forest)
In biology, the canopy is the aboveground portion of a plant community or crop, formed by plant crowns.For forests, canopy also refers to the upper layer or habitat zone, formed by mature tree crowns and including other biological organisms .Sometimes the term canopy is used to refer to the extent...
. The larva
Larva
A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...
e of the common bluebottle feed on trees of the laurel
Lauraceae
The Lauraceae or Laurel family comprises a group of flowering plants included in the order Laurales. The family contains about 55 genera and over 3500, perhaps as many as 4000, species world-wide, mostly from warm or tropical regions, especially Southeast Asia and South America...
family, which includes the cinnamon
Cinnamon
Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several trees from the genus Cinnamomum that is used in both sweet and savoury foods...
tree, and have expanded their range to include cinnamon tree plantation
Plantation
A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...
s. In eastern Australia, they have adapted to a drier subtropical environment, and are commonly seen in suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
an gardens in Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
and New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
.
Behavior
The males are known for their habit of feeding by the edges of puddles, often at the roadside. Occasionally, as many as eight will be seen at the same puddle. They have also been known to be attracted to animal droppings, carcasses and rotting insects.It has been recorded as a migrant in South India and is known to mud-puddle
Mud-puddling
Mud-puddling is the phenomenon mostly seen in butterflies and involves their aggregation on substrates like wet soil, dung and carrion to obtain nutrients such as salts and amino acids. This behaviour has also been seen in some other insects, notably the leafhoppers.Lepidoptera are diverse in...
during migration. The butterfly has been seen as comprising as much as 5% of the population of migrating butterflies during a 72 hour period in the Nilgiri hills.
Distribution
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
. Subspecies appear in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
(G. s. sarpedon and teredon), China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
(G. s. semifasciatus and connectens), Japan (G. s. nipponum), Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
and the Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...
, New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
(G. s. messogis), and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
(G. s. choredon).
In India it occurs in Southern India in the Western Ghats
Western Ghats
The Western Ghats, Western Ghauts or the Sahyādri is a mountain range along the western side of India. It runs north to south along the western edge of the Deccan Plateau, and separates the plateau from a narrow coastal plain along the Arabian Sea. The Western Ghats block rainfall to the Deccan...
and in the Himalayas
Himalayas
The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
from Kashmir in the west to Myanmar in the east.
Diet
The adult common bluebottle feeds on nectar from a variety of flowering herbs. The larva
Larva
A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...
e feed primarily on the leaves of trees in the families Lauraceae
Lauraceae
The Lauraceae or Laurel family comprises a group of flowering plants included in the order Laurales. The family contains about 55 genera and over 3500, perhaps as many as 4000, species world-wide, mostly from warm or tropical regions, especially Southeast Asia and South America...
, Myrtaceae
Myrtaceae
The Myrtaceae or Myrtle family are a family of dicotyledon plants, placed within the order Myrtales. Myrtle, clove, guava, feijoa, allspice, and eucalyptus belong here. All species are woody, with essential oils, and flower parts in multiples of four or five...
, Sapotaceae
Sapotaceae
Sapotaceae is a family of flowering plants, belonging to order Ericales. The family includes approximately 800 species of evergreen trees and shrubs in approximately 65 genera . Distribution is pantropical....
, and Rutaceae
Rutaceae
Rutaceae, commonly known as the rue or citrus family, is a family of flowering plants, usually placed in the order Sapindales.Species of the family generally have flowers that divide into four or five parts, usually with strong scents...
. In particular, G.s. sarpedon and G.s. teredon often feed on leaves of the cinnamon
Cinnamon
Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several trees from the genus Cinnamomum that is used in both sweet and savoury foods...
bark tree, Cinnamomum zeylanica, or of the Indian laurel
Indian laurel
Indian laurel can refer to certain species of fig trees or banyans:* Ficus microcarpa * Ficus retusaThough the though leaves look somewhat similar, they are not at all related to Bay Laurel ....
, Litsea sebifera.
The list of larval food plants also include Alseodaphne semecarpifolia, Cinnamomum camphora, Cinnamomum macrocarpum, Cinnamomum malabatrum, Litsea chinensis, Polyalthia longifolia, Miliusa tomentosa, Persea macrantha and Michelia doltospa.
The larvae of G.s. choredon, native to Australia, feed on many native Australian species of genera
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
Cryptocarya
Cryptocarya
Cryptocarya is a genus of evergreen trees belonging to the Laurel family, Lauraceae. The genus includes more than 350 species, distributed through the Neotropic, Afrotropic, Indomalaya, and Australasia ecozones.-Overview:...
and Litsea
Litsea
Litsea is a genus of evergreen or deciduous trees or shrubs belonging to the Laurel family, Lauraceae. The genus includes 200 to 400 species in tropical and subtropical areas of both hemispheres.-Overview:Trees or shrubs, dioecious...
; and virtually all subspecies feed on leaves of the camphor
Camphor
Camphor is a waxy, white or transparent solid with a strong, aromatic odor. It is a terpenoid with the chemical formula C10H16O. It is found in wood of the camphor laurel , a large evergreen tree found in Asia and also of Dryobalanops aromatica, a giant of the Bornean forests...
tree, Cinnamomum camphori, which is native to China but has been naturalized
Naturalisation (biology)
In biology, naturalisation is any process by which a non-native organism spreads into the wild and its reproduction is sufficient to maintain its population. Such populations are said to be naturalised....
throughout southeast Asia.
Larva
When young, is black or dark green, with numerous spines; when full grown, it is green with a short spines on each thoracic segment and anal segment. There is a transverse yellow band on the 4th segment and a lateral band on the body. The caterpillar usually lies on the centre of a leaf on an upper surface. It is very sluggish and pupates near its feeding spot." Smooth, thickened from the second to the 5th segment and thence decreasing to the end; with two short subdorsal fleshy spines on the 4th segment, between which is a transverse pale yellow line, two shorter spines also on the 2nd and 3rd and two on the anal segment; colour green, with a longitudinal posterior lateral and lower pale yellowish line." (Frederic Moore
Frederic Moore
Frederic Moore FZS was a British entomologist. It has been said that Moore was born at 33 Bruton Street but may be incorrect given that this was the address of the menagerie and office of the Zoological Society of London from 1826 to 1836.Moore was appointed an assistant in the East India Company...
quoted in Bingham, 1907)
Pupa
The pupa is green with a slender and pointed thoracic projection, yellowish wingcases and lateral bands."Conical, truncated in front; thorax produced into a lengthened obtusely-pointed frontal process." (Frederic Moore
Frederic Moore
Frederic Moore FZS was a British entomologist. It has been said that Moore was born at 33 Bruton Street but may be incorrect given that this was the address of the menagerie and office of the Zoological Society of London from 1826 to 1836.Moore was appointed an assistant in the East India Company...
quoted in Bingham, 1907)
General reading
- Krushnamegh Kunte (2005) Butterflies of Peninsular India. Universities Press.
- Meena Haribal (1994) Butterflies of Sikkim Himalaya and their Natural History.
- W.H. Evans (1932) The Identification of Indian Butterflies, 2nd Ed. Bombay Natural History Society, Madras