Blue Mormon has been declared as the State butterfly of Maharashtra

Papilio polymnestor, which is commonly known as Blue Mormon, has been declared as the state butterfly by the Maharashtra government on June 22. Maharashtra has also become the first state to have the second largest butterfly, found in India, as the State butterfly.

The decision was taken at a meeting conducted by the State Wildlife Board in Mumbai. The meeting was chaired by Finance and Planning Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar. Earlier, the State of Maharashtra had also considered Giant Squirrel as the state animal and Green Pigeon as the state bird.

Here are some facts on the State butterfly of Maharashtra, Blue Mormon:

It has velvet, black wings with bright blue spots

It is the largest butterfly in India after the Troides minos commonly known as the Southern Birdwing

It is only found in Sri Lanka, the western ghats of Maharashtra, South India and coastal belts of the country

Out of the total number of butterflies in the country, only 15 percent are found in Maharashtra. To conserve butterflies in Maharashtra, Blue Mormon was declared as the state butterfly

The population of Blue Mormons is not threatened. Although the Blue Mormons can be seen throughout the year, they occur more commonly in the monsoon or after it

The most number of Blue Mormons are found in Sri Lanka because the country has availability of the most number of food plants

The butterfly is most common in evergreen forests

The pupa of this butterfly is very large in size

Blue Mormons usually like to sit on the Ixora flower species.