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Luminary Oddities · Natural history & art
Graphium weiskei
Lepidoptera / Papilionidae
The purple-spotted swallowtail inhabits New Guinea’s highlands. Its black wings carry green, blue, pink and purple patches; experimental research attributes much of this palette to subtractive mixing of wing pigments.
Read the species account
Black wings carry sharply separated green, blue, pink and purple patches, with pale spots toward the forewing margins and long hindwing tails. The Taiwanese museum account gives a wingspan of 5–6 cm. [2]
The museum account lists Dryadodaphne crassa in Monimiaceae and Cryptocarya in Lauraceae as larval hosts. Its compiled host list also includes the rutaceous genera Citrus, Zanthoxylum, Euodia and Phellodendron. [2]
A 2023 study linked the wing palette to pigments that absorb different portions of incident light. Spectral measurements indicate mixtures of sarpedobilin and papiliochrome II in blue areas. An additional absorber, tentatively named weiskeipigment, intensifies blue colour and produces purple where sarpedobilin is less concentrated. [3]
The upper surface displays the multicoloured patchwork against black wing fields. The reverse has a different arrangement of pale and coloured regions; the long tails form part of both silhouettes. [2]
Bold dark contours define the wing outline and tails. Flat green, blue, pink and purple regions retain the specimen’s characteristic pattern, with the body and antennae integrated into the composition. [2]
Keep a physical specimen in a closed, stable enclosure away from direct sunlight, heat and moisture. Avoid touching the wings or tails, and inspect the display regularly for insect damage. [1]
How is the colour produced? The pigment study attributes much of the palette to subtractive mixing: several absorbers remove different wavelengths from the light reflected by the wing. [3]
The National Museum of Natural Science and Museums Victoria provide the geographical and specimen records. Stavenga’s 2023 paper examines wing pigments, while Müller and Tennent’s comparative treatment places the species within its Graphium group. [2][3][4][5]
Canadian Conservation Institute · Accessed 2026-10-09
National Museum of Natural Science, Taiwan · Accessed 2026-10-09
Stavenga; Journal of Experimental Biology 226:jeb245221 (2023) · Accessed 2026-10-09
Museums Victoria · Accessed 2026-10-09
Records of the Australian Museum · Accessed 2026-10-09
Framed and digital artworks featuring this species. Current options and prices are listed on Etsy.
Sources checked 2026-10-09. Illustrations · Luminary Oddities.
Return to the Entomological Atlas ↑NCBI Taxonomy · Accessed 2026-10-04
Smithsonian Gardens · Accessed 2026-10-09
