Tailed Jay - Graphium agamemnon

Scales of Tailed Jay

Fresh pupa

Tailed Jay -  Graphium agamemnon

• Predominantly green and black butterfly from swallowtail family

• It is a commonly occurring butterfly in India, mostly found nectoring near bushes of Lantena. 

• Another reason, Tailed Jay being common is as it uses false-Asoka tree as its food plant.











Eclosion sequence Tailed Jay





• Tailed Jay is also called green-spotted triangle, tailed green jay, or the green triangle.

Tailed Jay roosting 

• Jay is active from morning to late afternoon. It settles down in the evening, often hides sitting underside of the leaf of a bush in the dark.

• During nectoring Jay flutters quite fast and hardly opens the wing completely. It is difficult to get photograph of open winged tailed jay in the field. Chances of finding one are better in the morning when it opens the wing and sit for sun-bathing. However, it chooses top of a bush, thus makes it difficult to get good open-wing shot.

Similar looking species and occurring around Mumbai:

Common Jay

Common Blue bottle

Spot Swordtail