July Butterfly of the Month

Parthenos sylvia
The Clipper

Range: India east through southeast Asia and New Guinea

• More than any other species, the clipper is found near water. They often congregate near our ponds or on spots on the floor where the sprinkler got a little carried away. This is similar to their behavior in the wild, where they frequently drink from streams in deep forest cover.


• Many butterflies bask with open wings but P. sylvia rest with their wings open so frequently that some visitors believe they are moths. However, holding the wings open is not a reliable way to tell butterflies from moths. The clipper is in fact a butterfly.


• Rarely but strikingly, we may have two color phases of this butterfly at the same time. We get our brown clippers from the Philippines and the blue variety from Malaysia. There are other color variations including a bronzy-green variety found in India. Because they evolved on islands and in forest areas isolated by mountains, different colors became dominant in different places. There is little overlap of coloration in the wild.