Queen Alexandra's Birdwing
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| Ornithoptera alexandrae Rothschild, 1907 |
Queen Alexandra's Birdwing, (Ornithoptera alexandrae, syn: Zeunera alexandrae) is the largest butterfly in the world.
The species was named by L. W. Rothschild in 1907, in honour of Queen Alexandra, wife of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom. The first specimen was discovered and captured in 1906 by Albert Stewart Meek. It is native to the forests of Oro Province in eastern Papua New Guinea.
Though most authorities now classify this species in the genus Ornithoptera, it was formerly often placed in the genus Troides, and in 2001 the lepidopterist Gilles Deslisle proposed placing it in its own genus, Zeunera.
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[edit] Description
Female Queen Alexandra's Birdwings are larger than males with slightly rounder wings. They can reach a wingspan of 30 cm (>12 inches), a body length of 8 cm (3.2 inches) and a body mass of up to 12 grams (0.42 oz), all enormous measurements for a butterfly. The female has brown wings with white markings and a cream-colored body with a small section of red fur on its thorax. Males are slightly smaller than females with brown wings that have blue and green markings and a bright yellow abdomen. The wingspan of the males is approximately 20 cm. The Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing protects itself with a poison which comes from a pipevine plant.
[edit] Diet
The adult butterfly sips liquid food or nectar from plants using a proboscis, which is a long, flexible, tube-like “tongue”. The proboscis uncoils to allow the butterfly to “sip” food, and then coils up again when not in use.
[edit] Reproduction
The female Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing lays about 27 eggs on one single tree species called Pararistolochia schlechteri, a toxic pipevine plant, and when the caterpillar (larva) hatches it will eat entirely from the leaves. The larva is black with red tubercles, a cream-colored spot in the middle of its body and long tubercles all over the body. After the caterpillar stage the larva develop into a pupa or chrysalis. The body will develop into a butterfly inside the chrysalis without eating or drinking. Once the chrysalis stage is completed a flying adult butterfly emerges. During the adult stage no growth occurs and the butterfly will sip nectar and continue the life cycle by reproducing. The first meal of the butterfly is as a caterpillar when it eats its own eggshell. Following the eggshell, the caterpillars will eat the pipevine plant that the egg was on; the caterpillar will incorporate the poison from the plant into its body to use as protection in the future. It only takes one month for the butterfly to grow from an egg to an adult and the average life span of adults is three months.
[edit] Threats
Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing Butterflies are very rare and are only found in one location. East of the Owen Stanley Mountains in northern Papua New Guinea the butterflies inhabit a small strip of lowland coastal rainforests, but due to the shrinking size of all rainforests the butterflies are disappearing at a higher rate every year. Since the larva are depended on one single food plant (Pararistolochia schlechteri) this species became especially vulnerable due to the habitat destruction caused by oil palm plantations.
Another reason for its rapid decline are the collectors who prize their size, beauty and coloration. They are taken out of the rainforest and sold to tourist or shipped to other countries. Many butterfly hunters have tried to capture these butterflies with guns in the past, but others have exploited the help and the knowledge of the native Papuans who kill the butterflies with blowguns, which is a more effective technique.
The species is listed as an endangered under Appendix I of CITES, completely restricting its sale.
[edit] References
- Gimenez Dixon (1996). Ornithoptera alexandrae. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Listed as Endangered (EN B1+2c v2.3)
