Subspecies in India
(1) Papilio demoleus demoleus Linnaeus, 1758 – Northern Lime Swallowtail. The species is also known as the Lime Butterfly, or just Lime.
Conservation and Special status
This species is not legally protected in India under any schedules of WildLife (Protection) Act, 1972.
Photo Gallery and Species Biology
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This species is distributed throughout the Indo-Australian Region. It occurs across India, except in the arid NW and at elevations above 2,000 m.
| State | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | No date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andaman and Nicobar Islands UT | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| Andhra Pradesh | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| Arunachal Pradesh | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Assam | 1 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 1 | 8 | 1 | ||||
| Bihar | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Chandigarh | |||||||||||||
| Chhattisgarh | 2 | 4 | 3 | 8 | 8 | 28 | 12 | 9 | 9 | 11 | 1 | ||
| Dadra & Nagar Haveli UT | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Daman & Diu UT | |||||||||||||
| Delhi | 2 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 4 | 1 | ||||
| Goa | |||||||||||||
| Gujarat | 6 | 15 | 4 | 14 | 2 | 9 | 1 | ||||||
| Haryana | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Himachal Pradesh | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Jammu and Kashmir UT | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||||||
| Jharkhand | |||||||||||||
| Karnataka | 3 | 3 | 13 | 12 | 40 | 52 | 20 | 12 | 13 | 12 | 16 | 6 | |
| Kerala | 3 | 3 | 17 | 5 | 12 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 4 | 1 | ||
| Ladakh UT | |||||||||||||
| Lakshadweep | |||||||||||||
| Madhya Pradesh | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 14 | 4 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| Maharashtra | 13 | 25 | 14 | 40 | 42 | 58 | 26 | 24 | 25 | 45 | 14 | 16 | |
| Manipur | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Meghalaya | |||||||||||||
| Mizoram | |||||||||||||
| Nagaland | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Odisha | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Puducherry UT | |||||||||||||
| Punjab | 1 | 2 | |||||||||||
| Rajasthan | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | |||||||||
| Sikkim | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Tamil Nadu | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 16 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | ||
| Telangana | 2 | ||||||||||||
| Tripura | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Uttar Pradesh | 1 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 6 | |||||
| Uttarakhand | 4 | 4 | 8 | 2 | |||||||||
| West Bengal | 5 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 9 | 5 | 7 | 5 | |
| Total | 28 | 36 | 39 | 103 | 122 | 174 | 120 | 94 | 120 | 105 | 83 | 38 |
Acronychia pedunculata, Aegle spp., Aegle marmelos, Chloroxylon swietenia, Citrus spp., Citrus aurantiifolia, Citrus aurantium (=Citrus reticulata), Citrus limon, Citrus maxima, Citrus medica, Clausena anisata (=Clausena dentata), Glycosmis pentaphylla, Limonia acidissima, Murraya spp., Murraya koenigii (=Bergera koenigii), Ruta angustifolia, Ravenia spectabilis, Ruta graveolens, Toddalia trifoliata (Rutaceae). Cullen corylifolium (=Psoralea corylifolia) (Fabaceae) and Tilia spp. (Malvaceae). Ziziphus spp., Ziziphus mauritiana (Rhamnaceae) have also been reported.
Key Reference:
Nitin, R., V. C. Balakrishnan, P. V. Churi, S. Kalesh, S. Prakash, and K. Kunte. 2018. Larval host plants of the butterflies of the Western Ghats, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa, 10(4): 11495–11550.
For the complete list of larval host plants of Indian butterflies, see the page on larval host plants.
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Page citation
Saji, K., H. Ogale, A. Bora, Manoj P., D. Sawant, A. D. Nair 2026. Papilio demoleus Linnaeus, 1758 – Lime Swallowtail. In Kunte, K., S. Sondhi, and P. Roy (Chief Editors). Butterflies of India, v. 4.12. Published by the Indian Foundation for Butterflies. URL: https://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/papilio-demoleus, accessed 2026/06/08.