''Graphium doson'', the common jay, is a black, tropical papilionid (swallowtail)

butterfly Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

with pale blue semi-transparent central wing bands that are formed by large spots. There is a marginal series of smaller spots. The underside of wings is brown with markings similar to upperside but whitish in colour. The sexes look alike. The species was first described by father and son entomologists

Cajetan Cajetan and Kajetan is the Anglicized, Germanized and Slavicized form of the Italian given name Gaetano. People with this name include: * Thomas Cajetan (1469–1534), Italian Dominican theologian, cardinal, and opponent of Martin Luther * Saint C ...

and

Rudolf Felder Rudolf Felder (2 May 1842 in Vienna – 29 March 1871 in Vienna) was an Austrian jurist and entomologist. He was mainly interested in Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) or lepidopterans is an order (biology), order of winged insects which includes ...

Range

It is widespread and common throughout

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

, including lower elevations in

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

and southern

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Eastern Ghats The Eastern Ghats is a mountain range that stretches along the East Coast of India, eastern coast of the Indian peninsula. Covering an area of , it traverses the states and union territories of India, states of Odisha, Telangana, Andhra Prade ...

Satpuras The Satpura Range, formerly also known as the Seeonee Hills, is a range of hills in central India. The range rises in eastern Gujarat running east through the border of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and ends in Chhattisgarh. The range parallel ...

Bengal Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

and

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

, and the

Himalaya The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than 100 pea ...

n foothills. The species is however scarce in southern

Honshū , historically known as , is the largest of the four main islands of Japan. It lies between the Pacific Ocean (east) and the Sea of Japan (west). It is the seventh-largest island in the world, and the second-most populous after the Indonesian ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Subspecies

*''G. d. axion'' (C. & R. Felder, 1864) North India - China, Hainan, Indo-China, Burma, Thailand *''G. d. doson'' Ceylon *''G. d. eurypylides ''(Staudinger, 1895) Lombok, Sumbawa *''G. d. evemonides'' (Honrath, 1884) Peninsular Malaya, Sumatra, Java - Borneo, Philippines *''G. d. gyndes'' (Fruhstorfer, 1907) Philippines (Palawan, Busuanga, Dumaran) *''G. d. gelap'' Page and Treadaway, 2011 Malcolm G. P. Page and Colin G. Treadaway, 2011 New subspecies of Papilionidae from South-east Asia (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae) ''Nachr. entomol. Ver. Apollo'', N.F. 31 (4): 201–205 (2011
pdf
/ref> *''G. d. kajanga ''(Corbet, 1937) Pulau Tioman *''G. d. mikado'' (Leech, 1887) Japan *''G. d. nauta'' Tsukada & Nishiyama, 1980 Philippines *''G. d. perillus ''(Fruhstorfer, 1908) *''G. d. postianus'' (Fruhstorfer, 1902) Taiwan, Philippines (Batanes) *''G. d. rubroplaga ''(Rothschild, 1895) Nias *''G. d. robinson'' Monastyrskii, 2012 South Vietnam, Con Son Island *''G. d. sankapura'' (Fruhstorfer, 1904) Bawean

Habitat

It is common in thick, riparian, moist, deciduous, semi-evergreen and evergreen forests.

Behaviour

The common jay is active throughout the day and constantly on the move; it rarely settles down. Its flight is swift and straight. When feeding from flowers, it never settles down and keeps its wings vibrating. The males are seen

mud-puddling Puddling is a behaviour in which an organism seeks out nutrients in certain moist substances such as rotting plant matter, mud, and carrion, and sucks up the fluid. Where the conditions are suitable, conspicuous insects such as butterfly, butterf ...

, often in tight groups.

Life cycle

Eggs

The spherical and pale yellow eggs are laid singly on the underside of leaves.

Larva

The

caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder ...

is somewhat spindle shaped. The grown caterpillars have two forms, dark brown or grassy green. There are spines on the fourth segment which are short, conical and blue centred surrounded by lemon yellow and then black rings. The

osmeterium The osmeterium is a defensive organ found in all papilionid larvae, in all stages. The organ is situated in the prothoracic segment and can be everted when the larva feels threatened. The everted organ resembles a fleshy forked tongue (not unlik ...

is pale bluish green. It is extruded only reluctantly.

Pupa

The

pupa A pupa (; : pupae) is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their life cycle, the stages th ...

is pale green with a dark purplish median line from the head to the thoracic horn and a yellow line from the tip of the horn to the cremaster.

Images of life cycle

File:Common Jay (Graphium doson) Life Cycle.jpg, Life cycle Image:Commonjay egg sec.jpg, Egg Image:Commonjay_cat_sec1.jpg, Caterpillar Image:Commonjay_pupa_sec.jpg, Pupa File:Common jay UP.jpg, Butterfly

Food plants

The caterpillars feed on plants of the families

Annonaceae The Annonaceae are a Family (biology), family of flowering plants consisting of trees, shrubs, or rarely lianas commonly known as the custard apple family or soursop family. With 108 accepted genera and about 2400 known species, it is the largest ...

Lauraceae Lauraceae, or the laurels, is a plant Family (biology), family that includes the bay laurel, true laurel and its closest relatives. This family comprises about 2850 known species in about 45 genus (biology), genera worldwide. They are dicotyled ...

and

Magnoliaceae The Magnoliaceae () are a flowering plant family, the magnolia family, in the order Magnoliales. It consists of two genera: '' Magnolia'' and ''Liriodendron'' (tulip trees). Unlike most angiosperms, whose flower parts are in whorls (rings), ...

such as ''

Annona lawii ''Annona'' or Anona (from Taíno ''annon'') is a genus of flowering plants in the pawpaw/ sugar apple family, Annonaceae. It is the second largest genus in the family after '' Guatteria'', containing approximately 166Annona muricata Soursop (also called graviola, guyabano, and in Latin America ) is the fruit of ''Annona muricata'', a broadleaf, flowering, evergreen tree. It is native to the tropical regions of the Americas and the Caribbean and is widely propagated. It ...

'', ''

Cinnamomum macrocarpum ''Cinnamomum'' is a genus of evergreen aromatic trees and shrubs belonging to the laurel family, Lauraceae. The species of ''Cinnamomum'' have aromatic oils in their Leaf, leaves and bark (botany), bark. The genus contains approximately 234 spec ...

'', ''

Cinnamomum malabatrum ''Cinnamomum malabatrum'', wild cinnamon, country cinnamon also known as ''malabathrum'', is a tree in the family Lauraceae that is endemic to Western Ghats of India. It can grow up to tall. It has aromatic leaves that are used for culinary an ...

'', ''

Magnolia grandiflora ''Magnolia grandiflora'', commonly known as the southern magnolia or bull bay, is a tree of the family Magnoliaceae native to the Southeastern United States, from Virginia to central Florida, and west to East Texas. Reaching in height, it is a ...

'', ''

Magnolia liliifera ''Magnolia liliifera'', commonly known as egg magnolia, is a flowering tree native to the Indomalayan realm.GRIN lists the species is native to the following regions: China (Southern), Indian Subcontinent, North Indian Ocean, Indochina. It bears ...

'', ''

Magnolia oblonga ''Magnolia oblonga'', also known as borsopa, ful-sopa, or kothal-sopa, is a tree species native to the Northeastern region of India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and d ...

'', ''

Hunteria zeylanica ''Hunteria'' is a genus of plants in the family Apocynaceae first described as a genus in 1824. It is native to Africa and to South and Southeast Asia. ;Species # '' Hunteria ballayi'' Hua - Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, Cameroon ...

'', ''

Michelia champaca ''Magnolia champaca'', known in English as champak (), is a large evergreen tree in the family Magnoliaceae. It was previously classified as ''Michelia champaca''. It is known for its fragrant flowers, and its timber used in woodworking. Etymo ...

'', ''

Trachelospermum asiaticum ''Trachelospermum'' , is a genus of evergreen woody vines in the dogbane family Apocynaceae, first described as a genus in 1851. All species are native to southern and eastern Asia. They have long stems climbing to 12 m or more high in trees. ...

'' and ''

Polyalthia longifolia ''Monoon longifolium'', the false ashoka, also commonly known by its synonym ''Polyalthia longifolia'', is an Asian small tree species in the family Annonaceae. It is native to southern India and Sri Lanka, but has been widely introduced els ...

''.

Gallery

File:GraphiumDosonEvemonidesMUpUnAC1.jpg File:Common Jay (Graphium doson).jpg, Lateral view of Common Jay butterfly File:Common Jay (Graphium doson) on Singapur Cherry (Muntingia calabura) W IMG 9602.jpg, On Singapore cherry (''

Muntingia calabura ''Muntingia'' is a genus of plants in the family Muntingiaceae, comprising only one species, ''Muntingia calabura'', named in honour of Abraham Munting. It is native from Mexico south to Bolivia and Argentina. Its fruit is edible, and it has been ...

'') in

Hyderabad, India Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

File:Common Blue Bottle I IMG 8906.jpg, Mud-puddling in

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

, India File:Commonjay adup sec.jpg, Adult File:DSC 1152.NEF.jpg File:RN018 Dead Butterflies.jpg, Dead common jay with upper forewing visible File:Doson u copy.jpg, Underside of wing from

Adalbert Seitz Friedrich Joseph Adalbert Seitz, (24 February 1860 in Mainz – 5 March 1938 in Darmstadt) was a German physician and entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera. He was a director of the Frankfurt zoo from 1893 to 1908 and is best known for editi ...

's ''Macrolepidoptera of the World'' File:Achencovil river scene.jpg, At Achencovil river

Trivia

The Pokémon Caterpie, a caterpillar Pokémon from

Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow ''Pokémon Red Version'' and ''Pokémon Blue Version'' are 1996 role-playing video games (RPGs) developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy. They are the first installments of the Pokémon (video game series), ''Pokém ...

is based on the Graphium doson.

References

* * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q1768094 doson Insects of Pakistan Butterflies of Malaysia Natural monuments of Japan Butterflies described in 1864 Butterflies of Singapore Butterflies of Indochina Taxa named by Cajetan von Felder Taxa named by Rudolf Felder Butterflies of Java Butterflies of Borneo Butterflies of Japan Butterflies of Taiwan Fauna of Sumatra

Range

Subspecies

Habitat

Behaviour

Life cycle

Eggs

Larva

Pupa

Images of life cycle

Food plants

Gallery

Trivia

See also

References