canor of the great Mormon (Papilio memnon) and is a mimic of the Andaman clubtail

(Losaria rhodifer).

The male has the upperside of its wings a rich velvety black. The forewing has a
subterminal series of greenish-yellow irrorated (speckled) internervular streaks,
sometimes very faint. The hindwing has a very broad discal band pale blue, composed
of broad outwardly more or less emarginate streaks in interspaces 1 to 7; cilia:
forewing black, hindwing black alternated with white in the interspaces. Underside
opaque blue black. Forewing with a dark red streak at base and the subterminal
internervular streaks as on the upperside but grey and more prominent. Hindwing
with four or five small patches of dark red at base, a complete dark red eyespot in
interspaces 1 and 2, and indistinct subterminal very variable markings of red in
the other interspaces, sometimes formed into half eyespots in interspaces 3 and 4;
within this line of markings there is an incomplete discal lunular series of mixed
red and blue scaling. Antennae, head, thorax and abdomen black.[2]

The female closely resembles the tailed form of the female of Papilio memnon race
agenor, but on the disc of the forewing the internervular broad pale streaks are
nearly white, and on the hindwing the white streaks in the interspaces beyond and
outside the cell shorter and strongly tinged with red along their edges, while the
dark red is more extended, especially in the tornal area where it covers the
terminal three-fourths of interspaces 1 and 2, interrupted in 1 by a comparatively
round oval black spot and in 2 by a broad elongate black patch; apical half of tail
vermilion red, whitish at apex.[2]
Range

Andaman Islands of India in the Bay of Bengal.

Status

It is not common. It is protected by law in India. Males are reported to be more

common than females.[3]
See also

Papilionidae
List of butterflies of India (Papilionidae)

References

Atkinson, W.S. (1873). "Descriptions of two new species of butterflies from the
Andaman Islands". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London: 736.
Bingham, C.T. (1907). The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. Vol.
II (1st ed.). London: Taylor and Francis, Ltd.

Collins, N. Mark; Morris, Michael G. (1985). Threatened Swallowtail Butterflies

of the World: The IUCN Red Data Book. Gland & Cambridge: IUCN. ISBN 978-2-88032-
603-6 � via Biodiversity Heritage Library.

Other reading
Evans, W.H. (1932). The Identification of Indian Butterflies (2nd ed.). Mumbai,
India: Bombay Natural History Society.
Gay, Thomas; Kehimkar, Isaac David; Punetha, Jagdish Chandra (1992). Common
Butterflies of India. Nature Guides. Bombay, India: World Wide Fund for Nature-
India by Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195631647.