Trogonoptera brookiana

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Raja Brooke

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Papilionidae
Genus: Trogonoptera
Species: T. brookiana
Binomial name
Trogonoptera brookiana

The Rajah Brooke butterfly (Trogonoptera brookiana) is a distinctive black and electric-green birdwing butterfly from rainforests in Borneo and Malaysia; this butterfly is the national butterfly of Malaysia. The wings of the male butterflies are black and each forewing has seven teeth-shaped electric-green markings (the smaller hindwings are also black with green markings). The wings of the female butterflies are browner with prominent white flashes at the tips of the forewings and at the base of the hindwings. The head is bright red and the body is black with red markings. The larval host plant is Aristolochia foveolata. Adults sip fruit juices and flower nectar. Classification: Family Papillonidae, Subfamily Papilloninae.

This butterfly was named by the naturalist Alfred R. Wallace in 1855, after James of Sarawak, the Rajah of Sarawak.

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