MORPHOLOGY

External characteristics

Male
Forewing length (mm): 43-51. Wingspan (mm): 64-80.
Forewings: upperside black, small internervular white spots along outer margin; underside similar. Hindwings crenulate, slightly extended at vein 4, which extension may grow into a short tail; macular row of elongate white to creamy-white spots from inner margin (space 1a) to space 7 near apex; underside similar.

Female
Forewing length (mm): 37-53. Wingspan (mm):62-80.
Forewing may be similar to male, but usually quite different, more brown than black, with crenulate outer margin, basal third black and rest of wing more or less pale brown with dark veins and dark internervular stripes; underside similar. Hindwing crenulate, extension at vein 4 at least a short tail, but more often enlarged to a prominent, often spatulate, tail; upperside dark brown, almost always with smaller or larger red submarginal spots and red median spots in spaces 1b to (at most) 4, larger or smaller central white or pale ochreous field, covering at most bases of spaces 1b-5 and upper part of cell, but may be completely absent.

Subspecies and variation

The bewildering variation in the female is for a great part geographical, 17 subspecies have been distinguished, eleven of which occur in the Malesian area, from the maily black ssp. sotira from Sumbawa and ss. javanus from Java to the profusely marked ssp. timorensis from Timor.

Similar species

Several female forms apparently mimic Pachliopta aristolochiae, but the wings of the latter are much narrower and the outline of the forewing is never crenulate. The species is rather similar to P. alphenor from the Philippines and the Moluccas, an area where P. polytes does not occur. The separation of the two as full-blown species seems a matter of taste.

_{source: Jan Moonen, peronal communication 2020}