Error message
Unable to fetch location details at this time.
Common Mormon's Female form
Papilio polytes
12.2327, 79.0718
Field Notes
Description:
The Common Mormon (Papilio polytes) is a common species of swallowtail butterfly widely distributed across Asia. This butterfly is known for the mimicry displayed by the numerous forms of its females which mimic inedible Red-bodied Swallowtails, such as the Common Rose and the Crimson Rose.
In India, this butterfly is considered as the classic example of Batesian Mimicry in which edible species resemble unpalatable butterflies in order to escape being eaten by predators.
The populations of the mimicking morphs of the Common Mormon are much smaller than that of their models - the Common or Crimson Rose. This is in order to allow first time predators a much greater chance of preying upon the unpalatable model in the first instance and thus learning of their inedibility.
Larger populations of mimics could result in the edible Common Mormon mimics being sampled the first time by predators. If this should happen, the predator may not realise that butterflies of that colour and pattern are protected by the poisons they ingest; thus dramatically reducing the effectiveness of this scheme of protection.
This female form "stichius" of the Common Mormon mimics the Common Rose very closely. This is the commonest form wherever the Common Rose flies.
Source Wikipedia
Habitat:
spotted in my garden in Tiruvannamalai
Notes:
The female of the Common Mormon is polymorphic. In South Asia, it has three forms or morphs. These are as follows:
Form cyrus
This form is similar to the male, differing in that it always has strongly marked red crescents. It is the least common of the three forms. It is normally abundant where the Common Rose or Crimson Rose do not occur, such as in Himachal Pradesh around Shimla; although a few specimens of form romulus have also been caught alongside.
Form stichius
This female form of the Common Mormon mimics the Common Rose very closely. This is the commonest form wherever the Common Rose flies.
Form romulus
This female form mimics the Crimson Rose and is common over its range. It is not such a close mimic as the previous form being duller than its model, the Crimson Rose. It is easy to differentiate the mimics from models by the colour of their body—the models are red-bodied and the mimics are black-bodied.
Source Wikipedia
Comments (2)