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Text and photographs protected by Copyright © Adrian Hoskins 2007, and must not be published in part or in whole elsewhere without prior written permission from the author.
Butterflies of Malaysia and Borneo
 
Common Bluebottle
Graphium sarpedon LINNAEUS, 1758
Family - PAPILIONIDAE
subfamily - PAPILIONINAE
Tribe - LEPTOCIRCINI
 
 introduction | habitats | lifecycle | adult behaviour
 
Graphium sarpedon luctatius, males, Taman Negara, West Malaysia
 
Introduction
 
Butterflies of the genus Graphium are commonly known as Kites, Jays and Bluebottles. Graphium sarpedon is known in Malaysia and Sri Lanka as the Common Bluebottle, but in Australia is called the Blue Triangle or Blue Fanny.
 
The dorsum ( inner edge ) of the hindwing of males of all species has a fold enclosing androconial scales. The tornus of the hindwing is extended to produce a tail, which is short and stubby in sarpedon, but extended into a long sword-like projection in many of the African species. The wings of all species are dark brown, and possess bands of translucent turquoise or greenish-yellow "windows".
 
The genus includes 52 described species, distributed throughout the tropical regions of Africa, Asia and Australia. 37 of these are restricted to Africa, 10 are widespread across south-east Asia, and the remainder are endemic to islands in Indonesia and the south Pacific.
 
Graphium sarpedon is the most widespread and common of these species, found from India and Sri Lanka to Malaysia, China and Japan, Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, New Guinea, eastern Australia, and almost all Pacific islands as far east as the Solomon Islands.
 
Habitats
 
This species occurs in almost all forested habitats at altitudes between sea level and at least 1000m.
 
Lifecycle
 
The eggs are laid on the younger more tender leaves of Lauraceae, often on saplings or sucker growth around the base of the trees.
 
The fully grown caterpillar is green, speckled with yellow, and with a yellow band around the distended thoracic section, and a cream lateral stripe. The thoracic segments each carry a pair of short spines, and there is another short spine on the anal segment.
 
The larval foodplants include Persea, Cinnamomum, Alseodaphne and Litsea.
 
The chrysalis is pale green with a dark line along the side of the abdomen which extends along a lateral ridge to the tip of the prominent pointed thoracic horn. It is attached vertically by the cremaster and a silken girdle to a stem, and has the appearance of a curled, desiccated green leaf.
 
Adult behaviour

 

Males congregate in groups of up to 50 individuals, to imbibe mineral-laden moisture from the sandbanks of certain black-water rivers, but are much less frequent at white-water sites. They are much more abundant at lower altitudes, but can often be seen on the ground in one's and two's in the hill country. When feeding on the ground the wings are normally held erect and closed, but kept rapidly vibrating.

 

In some countries, e.g. Sri Lanka, the butterflies hardly ever settle on the ground, but are commonly seen flying around the tops of flowering trees, particularly at higher altitudes.

 
                                                        
In common with most other butterflies in Malaysia, Borneo and Palawan, the habitats of this species are severely endangered. Rainforest only remains on the steepest mountain-sides, and at a small number of nature reserves. Many of the reserves are now threatened with reclassification and subsequent exploitation at the hands of major international companies.
 
Tragically, the huge areas of tropical rainforest which once covered the lowlands of West Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak have been almost entirely cleared, with only a few "islands" of original forest remaining, surrounded by vast oil palm plantations.
 
The forests of Kalimantan ( the Indonesian sector of Borneo ) have suffered a similar fate, and what little remains is now under severe threat,
as the protected status of nature reserves is being revoked to make way for concession areas that will be subjected to open cast coal mines, logging, and clearance for immense oil palm plantations to satisfy the demand for bio-diesel fuel.
 
The extent of the devastation is immense, and the consequences catastrophic, not only for butterflies, but also for orang-utans, proboscis monkeys, hornbills, and myriads of other mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and insects - our natural heritage is being annihilated.
 
You can help prevent further devastation - please lobby your governments, and contact the rainforest conservation organisations who organise on-line petitions and use scientific evidence to apply pressure to the governments of Malaysia and Indonesia to halt the devastation.
 
 
Text and photographs protected by Copyright © Adrian Hoskins 2007-2008, and must not be reproduced or published in part or in whole elsewhere in any form without written permission from Adrian Hoskins. Breach of copyright will be pursued by litigation.
 
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