Chilasa clytia
In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%
Papilio clytia, the common mime, is a swallowtail butterfly found in south and southeast Asia. The butterfly belongs to the subgenus Chilasa, the black-bodied swallowtails. It serves as an excellent example of a Batesian mimic among the Indian butterflies.
Both males and females have the upperside velvety black or soft dark brown. Forewing: a subterminal series of outwardly truncate or emarginate white spots; the spot in interspace 4 shifted inwards out of line; those in interspaces 6, 7 and 8 oblique to the costa, the lowest and the upper two spots elongate; this is followed by a terminal series of smaller white spots, two in interspace 1, one above the outer, and two in interspaces 8; lastly, a single spot between the subterminal and terminal series.
Hindwing: a discal series of inwardly conical and outwardly emarginate, triangular, elongate white spots; a prominent tornal yellow spot broadly divided across the middle by a bar of the ground colour. The cilia touched with white in the interspaces; sometimes one or more of these specks on the cilia are broad and prominent and yellow in colour.
Underside: from soft pale brown to rich dark velvety brown... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kaeng Krachan National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tamluk | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Kozhikode | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Thiruvananthapuram | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Kolkata | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Kochi | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Xiuying District | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 7 | Jabalpur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Tuen Mun | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 9 | Dhaka | 🇧🇩 Bangladesh | |
| 10 | Guwahati | 🇮🇳 India |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Common Mime Swallowtail sighting in Kochi on a given day, based on 155 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 38th most-seen of the 428 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Common Mime Swallowtail in Kochi on a given day, against about 10% in January, March, July and November, the lowest months. That is one of Kochi's driest months, with about 130 mm of rain against 490 mm in June.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Common Mime Swallowtail sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
5th of 23
Of the 23 cities where we can rate Common Mime Swallowtail sightings, Kochi ranks 5th at about 20%. The best odds are in Tamluk (India, about 40%), Kozhikode (India, about 20%) and Thiruvananthapuram (India, about 20%).
Same family: Papilionidae
The closest relatives of the Common Mime Swallowtail that you can see in Kochi (family Papilionidae, Swallowtails and Parnassians) are Tailed Jay (about 40%), Common Mormon Swallowtail (about 30%) and Common Jay (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Common Mime Swallowtail is recorded against all the insects logged in Kochi (155 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
