Chilasa clytia
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%
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 |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Common Mime Swallowtail sighting in Mumbai on a given day, based on 51 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 89th most-seen of the 362 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Common Mime Swallowtail in Mumbai on a given day, against under 5% in February, May and July–August, the lowest months. That is one of Mumbai's driest months, with almost no rain against 830 mm in July.
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.
18th of 23
Of the 23 cities where we can rate Common Mime Swallowtail sightings, Mumbai ranks 18th at about 10%. 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 Mumbai (family Papilionidae, Swallowtails and Parnassians) are Common Mormon Swallowtail (about 40%), Tailed Jay (about 40%) and Lime Swallowtail (about 40%), 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 Mumbai (51 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.
