Habitat: The common Mormon prefers lightly wooded country, but is present everywhere and high up into the hills.

Behavior: It is a regular visitor to gardens, being especially abundant in orchards of its food plants—oranges and limes.
It is most common in the monsoon and post-monsoon months.

Food plants: The larvae breed on various species of family Rutaceae including:
Aegle marmelos or bael, Atalantia racemosa. Citrus spp. (C. aurantifolia. C. grandis. C. limon. C. medica. C. sinensis. Glycosmis arborea.
Curry Leaf, Murraya koenigii. Murraya paniculata.

Taxonomy:
Common Mormon, Papilio polytes is the nominal member of the polytes species group. The clade members are:
Papilio polytes (Linnaeus, 1758).
Papilio ambrax (Boisduval, 1832).
Papilio phestus (Guérin-Méneville, 1830).

The subspecies of Papilio polytes listed alphabetically are:
P. p. alcindor (Oberthür, 1879). – Buton, Salayer & Sulawesi.
P. p. alphenor (Cramer, 1776). – Philippines.
P. p. javanus (Felder, 1862). – Bali, Bangka, Biliton, Java & southern Sumatra.
P. p. latreilloides (Yoshino, 2018). – N. Yunnan, N.E. Vietnam.
P. p. ledebouria (Eschscholtz, 1821). – Philippines.
P. p. messius (Fruhstorfer, 1909). – Lombok.
P. p. nicanor (C. & R. Felder, 1865). – Bachan, Halmahera, Morotai, Obi & Ternate.
P. p. nikobarus (C. Felder, 1862). – Nicobar Islands.
P. p. pasikrates (Fruhstorfer, 1908). – Philippines (Batanes) & Taiwan.
P. p. perversus (Rothschild, 1895). – Sangir & Talaud.
P. p. polycritos (Fruhstorfer, 1902). – Banggai, Sula Is.
P. p. polytes (Linnaeus, 1758). – Indo-China, China & Taiwan.
P. p. eromulus (Cramer, 1775). – Nepal, India, Burma & Sri Lanka.
P. p. rubidimacula (Talbot, 1932). – W.Yunnan.
P. p. sakiboso (Yoshino, 2018). – W. Sichuan.
P. p. sotira (Jordan, 1909). – Sumbawa.
P. p. steffi (Page & Treadaway, 2003). – Bongao, Sibutu & Tawitawi in the Philippines.
P. p. stichioides (Evans, 1927). – South Andamans.
P. p. theseus (Cramer, 1777). – Sumatra & Borneo.
P. p. timorensis (C. & R. Felder, 1864). – Babar Islands, Wetar, Leti, & possibly Timor.
P. p. tucanus (Jordan, 1909). – Tukangbesi Islands.
P. p. vigellius (Fruhstorfer, 1909). – Bawean.

Mimicry: Crimson rose, compare with form romulus
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 allows 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.

In Sulawesi, although the common rose is abundant, the common mormon female morph which is found there, mimics a completely different butterfly, Atrophaneura polyphontes.

A single gene, doublesex, regulates the complex wing patterns, colors and structures required for this mimicry.

Mimicry: 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. The webmaster have seen this species in Chitwan National park in Terai, Nepal back in february 2000.  

GBIF: Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
World distribution:
Common Mormon, Papilio polytes (Linnaeus, 1758).

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Blue Hour

In the evening when I sat by the riverbank in the small village of Sauraha with a cocktail called "Rhino's Horn" and watched the sunset. There was fantastic wildlife here, you could see the shepherds coming home with the goats and water buffalo, and the elephants coming home from work in the forest, as well as tourist jeeps driving across the river back from the Jungle Safari. Over the river sailers and swallows fly, as well as seeing the kingfisher stand on spinning wings and suddenly dive down for a fish.

Lars Andersen: A History of the Wildlife on the River in Chitwan National Park, Nepal. February 2000.