The Great Blue-mime Butterfly

The Great Blue Mime (Chilasa paradoxa) is a Swallowtail butterfly found in India and parts of South-East Asia. The butterfly belongs to the Mime Genus Chilasa. It is an excellent mimic of different species of Euploea.

The Great Blue mime belongs to the Kingdom Animalia. Phylum Arthropoda means invertebrate animal having an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and jointed appendages. Class Insecta means class of invertebrates within the Arthropod phylum that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body, three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes and one pair of antenna. Order Lepidoptera is an order of insects that includes moths and butterflies. Family Papilionidae means remarkable family of some of the largest butterflies in the world. Genus Chilasa that belongs to the Species of C. paradoxa.

Gross Morphology

The Great blue mime is consist of the head which has black in color. The thorax has black with white spots, the underside has white spots and 10-12 cm wingspan. The abdomen is black in color. The forewings are dark-brown, blue area in the middle of the wing with white spots. There are chains of white spots at the outer edge, both underside and upside are identical, underside's basic color is brown except no blue areas, hind wings are dark-brown, Underside's basic color is brown, chain of white spots at the outer edge.

Animal Description

It can be found on tropical forest. It undergoes complete metamorphosis from egg, caterpillar, pupa and adult. From egg to caterpillar it takes 5-10 days, then after a month of eating and growing, it is ready to become a pupa. After 10-14 days, they morph into a butterfly. They respire through spiracles and excrete waste through malpighian tubules. They are fed base on their stages Larval food: Lauraceae cinnamomum and Lauraceae Litsea, adult butterfly: uses their proboscis to suck nectar of flowers and feet for rotting fruits.

Taxonomical Classification