Great Mormon
The great Mormon is a big swallowtail butterfly from southern Asia. The boy is deep blue to black. The girls are the real surprise: they come in lots of different looks, and many of them copy butterflies that taste horrible to birds.
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Fun facts
People have counted as many as 26 different looks for the girl butterflies. Some even have tails, while the boys never do.
Many girls copy butterflies that taste bad, so birds leave them alone too.
Boys are much more common than girls.
It usually flies 2 to 4 metres above the ground.
Because people grow lots of citrus trees all over southern Asia, its caterpillars have plenty to eat.
Most asked questions about Great Mormon
?Why do female great Mormons look so different?
Many of them copy butterflies that taste bad to birds. That trick keeps them safe.
?How big is a great Mormon butterfly?
Its wings are about 12 to 15 centimetres across.
?What does the great Mormon caterpillar eat?
It eats the leaves of citrus trees, like orange and lemon trees.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Papilio memnon
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Papilionidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Papilionidae
- Lives on
- Asia
Where the facts come from
- Papilio memnon (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by pjt56 --- If you use the picture outside Wikipedia I would appreciate a short e-mail to [email protected]. CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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