Papilio polytes prefers lightly wooded country, but is present everywhere including high up into the hills. It is a regular visitor to gardens, being especially abundant in orchards of its food plants, oranges and limes.
   It is most common in the monsoon and post-monsoon months.
   The male is a regular visitor to gardens where is seen hovering over flowers when the sun is shining.
   It is a restless insect, zigzagging fast, straight and close to the ground, settling down only when it 
halts to feed.
    In forests, they remain low keeping within ten feet off the ground.
   Males take part in mud puddling, usually in cool shaded spots rather than in open areas. They have been known to collect on saline soils to extract minerals. 
   Both sexes bask in the sun on shrubs close to the ground. They hold their wings flat against the substratum. The forewing is lowered to cover part of the hindwing and is a typical stance of the common Mormon.
   They spend the night settled on vegetation with wings held open, usually quite close to the ground.
   Males are jet black, with rows of white spots along the middle part of hindwings. 
   The male has one morph. It is a dark colored swallow tailed butterfly.
   The dorsal forewing has a series of white spots decreasing in size towards the apex.
   The dorsal hindwing has a complete discal band of elongated white spots. It may or may not have marginal red crescents.
   The males are generally smaller in size than the females but not always.
   Both males and all forms of the female can vary considerably in size depending on the climatic region.
    The female of the common Mormon is polymorphic.

    In the Indian Subcontinent, it has several forms or morphs.

    They are known for the mimicry displayed by the numerous forms of its females which mimic inedible red bodied swallowtails, such as the common rose and the crimson rose.

   The species has considerable genetic variability and is known to produce gynandromorphs, genetic aberrations which are part male and part female.

   The species is very common and not considered threatened.