Graphium macleayanum (Leach, 1814)
Macleay's Swallowtail
 (previously known as Papilio macleayanus)
PAPILIONIDAE,   PAPILIONOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stewart Newman & Stella Crossley

This butterfly was named after Alexander Macleay, who in London in the early nineteenth centrury, amassed the greatest insect collection of the time. He was appointed to be Secretary of New South Wales in 1825, and took his great insect collection with him, using it to found the Macleay Museum at the University of Sydney


first instar, magnified, length about 4 mms.
(Photo: courtesy of Antony Moore, Port Macquarie, New South Wales)

The first instar is greyish green with an off-white prothorax and tail. The head, thorax, and tail have tubercles, each tipped with a rosette of hairs. The abdomen has sparse hairs, each with a forked tip.


second instar, magnified, length about 8 mms.
(Photo: courtesy of Stewart Newman, Sydney, New South Wales)

The second instar is mainly green with a dark brown head, thorax, and penultimate segment, and a white hairy forked tail. The head and thorax also have hairy tubercles.

Graphium macleayanum
later instar
(Photo: courtesy of Stewart Newman, Sydney, New South Wales)

This Caterpillar is green with a humped thorax. Initially it has a black hump and a black forked tail. Later it becomes plain green with small pale dots over the body, and two narrow yellow lines along the back. It feeds on the foliage various species of Australian native trees in MONIMIACEAE including :

  • Tasmanian Sassafras ( Atherosperma moschatum ),
  • Socketwood ( Daphnandra micrantha ),
  • Australian Sassafras ( Doryphora sassafras ),
  • Diemen Pepper ( Tasmannia lanceolata ),

    and various other subtropical trees in LAURACEAE including :

  • Camphor Laurel ( Cinnamomum camphora ),
  • Rose Maple ( Cryptocarya erythroxylon ),
  • Domatia Tree ( Endiandra discolor ),

    and also

  • Glasswood ( Geijera salicifolia, RUTACEAE ).

    The caterpillar grows to a length of about 4 cms.

    Graphium macleayanum
    pupa
    (Photo: courtesy of Wes Jenkinson)

    The pupa is green with thin pale lines and a peaked thorax. It suspended from a cremaster and girdle on the underside of foodplant leaf.

    Graphium macleayanum
    (Photo: courtesy of Rosemary Robins, Eureka, New South Wales)

    The adult butterflies have a wing span around 8 cms. The upperside of the wings is green with black and white markings. Unusually for butterflies. the legs are also green.

    Graphium macleayanum
    (Photo: courtesy of Di Donovan, Beecroft, New South Wales)

    Males congregate around hilltops, where they can be seen defending their territory from rival males and courting passing females. We used to watch them flying above the eucalypts at the highest point of a local hill. They rarely came down to a catchable height.

    Graphium macleayanum
    (Photo: courtesy of Paul Kay)

    The undersides are green with black and brown margins.

    Graphium macleayanum
    camouflaged adult feeding on nectar,
    on Pittosporum undulatum, Kulnura ridgeline, New South Wales.
    (Photo: courtesy of Boris Branwhite, Wyong Shire, New South Wales)

    Various races have been described, including:

  • insulanum (Waterhouse, 1920) on Lord Howe Island,
  • macleayanum in Queensland, and New South Wales, and Victoria,
  • moggana Couchman, 1965, in Victoria and Tasmania.


    (Photo: courtesy of Stewart Newman, Sydney, New South Wales)

    The eggs are round and pale green. They are laid singly on young shoots of a food plant.


    (Courtesy : Instant Scratchies)

    ( Australia Post, 1981)

    Further reading :

    Michael F. Braby,
    Butterflies of Australia,
    CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 1, pp. 256-258.

    Frank Jordan & Helen Schwencke,
    Create More Butterflies : a guide to 48 butterflies and their host-plants
    Earthling Enterprises, Brisbane, 2005, pp. 30, 64, 66.

    William Elford Leach,
    Zoological Miscellany; being Descriptions of New, or Interesting Animals,
    Volume 1 (1814), p. 17, and also Plate 5.

    Wesley Jenkinson,
    Life history notes on the Macleay’s Swallowtail, Graphium macleayanum (Leach, 1814) Lepidoptera: Papilionida,
    Butterflies and Other Invertebrates Club,,
    Metamorphosis Australia,
    Issue 109, pp. 19-23.

    Gustavus Athol Waterhouse,
    Descriptions of new forms of butterflies from the South Pacific,
    Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales,
    Volume 45 (1920), p. 470.

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    (updated 22 December 2012, 24 February 2014, 12 May 2015, 8 June 2020, 24 April 2021, 20 March 2022)