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Common bluebottle.

Aichi, Japan.

One Restless Flutterer

Photo credit: Eleanor Chua.

This restless female Bluebottle (Graphium sarpedon) really presents a challenge to catch. Taken outside the Mandai Wildlife Reserve with the exposure biased just 2/3 stop darker to preserve highlights.

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Day 98#: Common Bluebottle Butterfly

Today's animal of the day is the Common Bluebottle Butterfly (Graphium sarpedon)!

Photo credit: Stéphane Bureau du Colombier

This species of swallowtail butterfly can be found throughout the rainforests of Asia, as well as in eastern Australia, where they are known as blue triangle butterflies. The upper wings of this species are black, while the lower wings are a dark brown, and each wing has a bluish-green triangle on it that points towards the butterfly's body. Male common bluebottles have gray abdomens covered in stiff, white hairs.

Photo credit: Laitche

These butterflies prefer to inhabit moist lowland rainforests and are commonly seen flying just above the tree canopy. However, in places like Australia, they have adapted to live in slightly more arid environments compared to their Asian counterparts. There are currently 16 recognized subspecies of common bluebottles that are scattered throughout Asia, Australia, and the numerous islands found between the two continents. Common bluebottles are fairly fast for butterflies and are considered quite difficult to catch. These butterflies often exhibit a behavior known as mud-puddling, where they will often gather around mud puddles in order to drink from them. They have also been observed drinking the moisture off of dung and rotting carcasses.

Photo credit: Suipoon Kwan

Like with all butterflies, they go through several different life stages before metamorphosing into their adult forms. Caterpillars hatch from a yellowish egg and are either black or green in color and covered in spines that help to protect them from predators. They feed mostly on plants in the laurel, myrtle, sapotaceae, and citrus families, with cinnamon trees and Indian laurels being particular favorites of theirs.

Photo credit: bluebottle77 on iNaturalist

Eventually, the caterpillars will transform into slender, green pupae and then hatch into adult butterflies. As adults, they will feed on the nectar of a wide variety of flowering plants. Butterflies, and many other species of insect pollinators, tend to be able to see a much wider variety of colors than humans can, including ultraviolet light. In fact, many flowers actually have special patterns on their petals that are invisible to the human eye but help show flying insects where to land when they come to drink the flower's nectar. The common bluebottle has 15 types of color-detecting opsins in its retinas! Meanwhile, humans only have three.