This is a list of the butterflies of family Papilionidae, or the swallowtails, which are found in India. This family of large and beautiful butterflies is well represented with 89 species found within Indian borders. Two of the three papilionid subfamilies are represented in India, namely, the Parnassiinae or Apollos, with 19 species, and the Papilioninae or swallowtails, with 70 species. The area of India falls in the Indomalayan realm, except for the Himalayasabove and beyond the foothills adjoining the Indo-Gangetic Plains, and which fall in the Palearctic realm, resulting in increased diversity of papilionid butterflies, especially the Parnassiini or snow Apollos, all species of which are Palearctic. Indian swallowtails are spread over all the biomes/ecoregions of India. The Malabar banded peacock and the Malabar banded swallowtail fly at sea level while the Apollos, are to be found only in the highest alpine meadows of the Himalayas. Some species such as the common Mormon and the blue Mormon fly at ground level whereas others, such as the tailed jay are normally found flying high in the forest canopy. The lime butterfly is a creature of arid scrub-land, occasionally being spotted even in the Thar Desert, while the tropical evergreen forests have their own representatives, such as the red Helen, the common bluebottle and the Malabar raven. Indian papilionids such as the common Mormon and great Mormon show polymorphism with many mimetic female forms. Amongst swallowtails, endemism is found only in the Western Ghats. Notable endemics are the southern birdwing, Malabar banded swallowtail, Malabar raven, Malabar rose and the Malabar banded peacock. This list is based on A Synoptic Catalogue of the Butterflies of India by R. K. Varshney and Peter Smetacek.
Subfamily Papilioninae
The swallowtails are generally easily identified in the field by their large size, prominent markings, colour, patterns and variable wing and tail shape.
The birdwings, as the Troides butterflies are called are large, yellow-and-black coloured butterflies, two species of which are found in the forests of the Himalayas and one species in the Western Ghats. These are the largest butterflies found in India.
;Red-bodied swallowtails The genera Losaria, Pachliopta and Byasa of the Indian Troidini are commonly called as the red-bodied swallowtails alongwith the Atrophaneura. They were formerly considered to be subgenera under genus Atrophaneura till several authorities elevated them to genus level in their publications. These butterflies sequester toxins from plants and are inedible or poisonous to predators. They also have warning colouration, a phenomenon also known as aposematism. The red-bodied swallowtails are involved in Batesian mimicry complexes as aposematic models which are mimicked by edible species.
Black-coloured red-bodied swallowtails with elongated wings, prominent white and red spots, and tails that are found in low elevation forests along the Himalayas and the Northeast of India.
Black-bodied swallowtails, often distinctively marked, some widely distributed, which are edible and form Batesian mimicry complexes with danaines or red-bodied swallowtails. Some species are polymorphic, mostly in the female forms.
''Papilio'' (''Chilasa'') – mimes
Medium-sized tailless swallowtail butterflies which mimic the milkweed butterflies, which they fly alongside, both in appearance and methods of flight. Except for the Common Mime which is also found in peninsular India, they are confined to the lower Himalayas and Northeast India.
Large strong-flying black butterflies with distinctive colourful markings, most species of which occur along the low elevation forests of the Himalayas while a few species occur in the Western Ghats and some peninsular Indian forests.
''Papilio'' (''Sinoprinceps'') – Chinese swallowtails
Tribe Leptocircini
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''Graphium'' Scopoli, 1777 – bluebottles, jays, swordtails and zebras
''Graphium'' (''Graphium'') – bluebottles and jays
The zebras are tailless swallowtails found in the Himalayas and Northeast that mimic the aposematic bluish-white Danaus milkweed butterflies.
Great zebra, Graphium xenocles
Lesser zebra, Graphium macareus
Spotted zebra, Graphium megarus
;Swordtails These butterflies, formerly Graphium, are now divided into two genera Pathysa and Pazala. They are large white butterflies with black bars in the cells of the forewings, and the hindwings each bearing a long sword-like tail. They are butterflies of hilly forests from the Himalayas to the Northeast, except for the fivebar swordtail which also flies in the Western Ghats and the spot swordtail which is also found in peninsular India and the Indo-Gangetic plains.
Lamproptera or dragontails, are small swallowtail butterflies with large tails found in the tropical and subtropical forests of Northeast India, and further East.
The Kaiser-i-Hind is a rare species of swallowtail butterfly found from Nepal and north India eastwards to north Vietnam. The common name literally means "Emperor of India", and it is much sought after by butterfly collectors for its beauty and rarity.
Kaiser-e-Hind, Teinopalpus imperialis Hope, 1843
''Meandrusa'' Moore, 1888 – hooked swallowtails
Large sombre-coloured swallowtails with triangular forewings with concave outer margins, sinuously margined hindwing and long outwardly-curved spatulate tail. Found in low elevation forests along the central and eastern Himalayas and the Northeast.
Brown gorgon, Meandrusa lachinus
Yellow gorgon, Meandrusa payeni
Subfamily Parnassiinae
The Parnassiinae include about 50 medium-sized, white or yellow high-altitude butterflies that are distributed across Asia, Europe and North America, of which 19 species fly in India.
The genus Bhutanitis contains large butterflies that are black with thin white stripes above, have red and yellow tornal patches on the hindwing, and a number of tails, which are found in the region of Bhutan, Northeast India, Myanmar, Thailand and South China.
The Apollos, genus Parnassius are high altutude palearctic butterflies that are different in appearance from other swallowtails, being of moderate size, with white ground colour, and spotted with red, black and blue.
