Chilasa paradoxa (Zinken-Sommer, 1831)

Cameroon Highlands, Malaysia; 5/80
no data  female form danisepa

    Found from N India east through S China and south through Thailand, the Malay peninsula, and western Indonesia (to Borneo). Local and not common, but widespread. Some subspecies are considered rather rare. Many different forms have been described and it is clearly ahighly variable species, with males and females mimicing various and different (!) Danaid models (a butterfly species that is distasteful to some predators). Due to variability, many so-called subspecies are nearly impossible to tell apart without accurate collecting data.

    telearchus - N India, Thailand, Burma, and Indochina
    aenigma - Sumatra, the Malay Peninsual, and Singapore
    niasicus - Nias
    mesades - Batu
    paradoxa - Java
    ??? new ssp - Hainan island
    telesicles - Borneo
    melanostoma - Palawan