The Common Mormon - female - Romulus - in flight

Description:

This female form mimics the Crimson Rose and is common over its range. It is not such a close mimic as the previous form being duller than its model, the Crimson Rose. It is easy to differentiate the mimics from models by the colour of their body—the models are red-bodied and the mimics are black-bodied.

Habitat:

Pakistan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, southern and western China (including Hainan (Guangdong province), Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan (Ryukyu Islands), Vietnam, Laos, Kampuchea, Andamans, Nicobars, Eastern and Peninsular Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia (except Moluccas and Irian Jaya), Philippines, and Northern Marianas (Saipan).

Notes:

The common name is an allusion to the polygamy formerly practiced by members of the Mormon sect according to Harish Gaonkar, of the Natural History Museum in London: ... the origins of giving common English names to organisms, particularly butterflies for tropical species started in India around the mid 19th century ... The naming of Mormons evolved slowly. I think the first to get such a name was the Common Mormon (Papilio polytes), because it had three different females, a fact that could only have been observed in the field, and this they did in India. The name obviously reflected the ... Mormon sect in America, which as we know, practiced polygamy. The scientific name is constructed from the Latin word for butterfly, papilio, and the Greek word for many, poly. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papilio_pol...)