Tailed Jay Butterfly

Tailed Jay Butterfly Facts, "Scientific name for Tailed Jay Butterfly is Graphium Agamemnon". Tailed Jay Butterfly was discovered in 1758 by Linneas. Tailed Jay Butterfly are insects. A Tailed Jay Butterfly is a herbivore; Meaning that as a caterpillar its first food is its own eggshell and than it will eat the leaves of the plant on which it is hatched. When it becomes a butterfly, it will feed mostly on nectar from flowers, rotting fruit and water with a "proboscis" - a long narrow tube in their mouth that looks like a straw.

The Tailed Jay Butterfly is also called the green spotted triangle butterfly and the green triangle. It received this name for the many green spots on its black wings.

The Tailed Jay butterfly is an Australian / Indonesian native. The Tailed Jay Butterfly is found from Australia to India to Sri Lanka to Southeast Asia. There are several distinct sub-species. The Graphium Agamemnon decoratus of the Andaman islands looks like the mainline Graphium Agamemnon except for its smaller spots and larger red spots on the anal part. The Tailed Jay Butterfly is part of the Papilonidae family, a part of the swallowtail family.

Tailed Jay Butterfly has a four to five inch wingspan (10 to 12.7 cm). It has long straight antennae. The Tailed Jay Butterfly has a black body with two vertical green stripes down its length. The underside of the wings is brown, with the same green pattern though the green dots are darker. The underside of the body is black. There are no major differences in size or coloring between male and female Tailed Jay Butterfly. Males are more likely to mud-puddle or “puddling”, the act of drinking water from holes in the wet ground or from mud puddles, in order to take in the minerals in the water.

Tailed Jay Butterfly eggs when fresh resemble light green pearls. The eggs take around three days to hatch, turning clear and dark as they mature. The eggs are usually laid on members of the Annonaceae family. The Tailed Jay Butterfly eggs are usually laid on saplings at low heights, less than two meters above the ground. The larva consumes the remaining egg after hatching as its first meal. Life cycle of a Tailed Jay Butterfly comes in four stages, egg, larva "caterpillars", pupa "chrysalis" and adult Butterfly.
A Tailed Jay Butterfly will attach its eggs to leaves with a special glue.

When caterpillars become fully grown they will attach to an appropriate leaf or small branch, than they will shed the outside layer of their skin and a hard skin underneath known as a "chrysalis" will be their new look
An adult butterfly will come out from the "chrysalis" than it waits a few hours for its wings to dry and fill with blood, before it takes its first flight. The caterpillars live on a number of host plants: the soursop (Annona muricata), white champaca (Michelia alba), annona cherimla, the ashoka tree (Polyathia longifolia var. pendula) and several others. The larva are initially light brown or dark yellow before darkening to a dark brown. The Tailed Jay Butterfly have lateral spines on each of their three thoracic segments to deter predators from eating them as well as a pair of spines on their rears. Larva rest on the top of the leaf. The front of the larva grows darker and wider as it grows.
The Graphium Agamemnon builds a light green cocoon in which to pupate. It stays in the cocoon for twelve to fourteen days.

The Tailed Jay Butterfly adults can fly quickly but regularly fly slow. They are very active butterflies, even flapping their wings when visiting flowers. The Tailed Jay Butterfly are usually found at low elevations. Their favored food, the false Ashoka tree or mast tree, is regularly used as an ornamental plant in Australia, meaning the Tailed Jay Butterfly have spread along with the suburbs. The favorite foods of the adults are the poinsettia, Ixora, lantana and mussaenda. The Tailed Jay Butterfly breed constantly throughout the year; they take about a month to become adults, so seven or eight generations may be born in a single year. Their numbers increase after a monsoon and the uptick in availability of food.

A Tailed Jay Butterfly has body, made up of three parts – the head, abdomen and thorax. A Tailed Jay Butterfly has two large eyes, which are made up of many small parts which are called "compound eyes".
A Tailed Jay Butterfly has two antenna's on the top of their heads, which they use to smell, hear and feel. A Tailed Jay Butterfly’s mouth is a long tube a "proboscis" - a long narrow tube in their mouth that looks like a straw when its done eating, it rolls the tube back up.

There are differences between the male and female Tailed Jay Butterfly. Females are similar in size but more likely to have a greenish white streak along both of their sides.

Tailed Jay butterflies are common and not considered endangered.

A Tailed Jay Butterfly has three pairs of legs and their feet have little claws that help them stand on flowers. The Tailed Jay Butterfly's wings are made up of hard tubes that are covered with a thin tissue. The Tailed Jay Butterfly's wings are covered with fine dusty like scales. A Tailed Jay Butterfly has four brightly colored wings having distinctive patterns made up of tiny scales. The bright patterns scales sometimes have hidden ultraviolet patterns for attracting mates. The bright colors are also used as camouflage to hide them or scare off predictors.

The Tailed Jay Butterfly can see yellow, green, and red.
The top flight speed of a Tailed Jay Butterfly is 12 miles per hour and some moths can fly up to 25 miles per hour.
A Tailed Jay Butterfly is cold-blooded, which means the body temperature is not regulated on its own. A Tailed Jay Butterfly can't fly or eat if their body temperature is below 82 degrees fah (28 cel). Butterfly's are often basking in the sun with their wings open to gain heat and than the veins in the wings carry the heat to the body.
A Tailed Jay Butterfly has sense organ, on their feet or tarsi, for tasting
The estimate is between 15000 and 20000 different species of butterfly.