Learn About the Endangered
BIRDWING BUTTERFLY

• The origin of the word butterfly comes from the Anglo-
  Saxons which used the word 'butterfloege' because
  their most common one was the yellow brimstone butterfly.
  This English influence was brought to the new world.
• In other languages the butterfly's name means 'licker of
  milk' and milk thief.
• In Russia they're called 'babochka' or 'little soul'.
• The ancient Greeks called butterflies 'Psyche' which
  also means 'soul.'
• In France they are called 'papillon.' Parking tickets
  are called 'papillon' too, because they are big pieces of
  yellow paper. When they are placed under a windshield wiper
  they flap like a big yellow butterfly.
• The Sioux Indians called butterflies fluttering wings.



• Differences between Butterflies and Moths:



• A butterfly has a long, slender body. A moth has
  a thick body.
• The butterfly antennae is clubbed, while moths have
  feathery antennae.
• Butterflies are generally active during the day,
  and moths are mostly active at night.
• Butterfly wings fold upright, while moths fold
  their wings along the sides of their bodies to form a
  triangular shape.
• Butterfly wings are usually multi-colored with
  elaborate patterns. Moths generally are brownish,
  although some can be colorful.
• Butterfly wings have separate front and hind sections.
  Moths are able to "hook" these sections together.
• An adult butterfly emerges from a chrysalid.
  A moth emerges from a coccoon.
• There are approximately 150,000 species of moths,
  but only about 20,000 species of butterflies.


• Butterflies have specialized organs to smell, taste,
  touch and see, but they have no ears.
• A butterfly uses its antennae to sniff the air.
• The butterflies eyes are actually many eyes. Their
  segmented eyes easily detect color and sudden movement.
• A butterfly uses its proboscis like a straw to sip
  nectar from the flowers.
• Touching may harm or kill a butterfly. Even a gentle
  touch removes the wing scales.
• Depending on the species a butterfly may live from three
  days to several months.
• The average butterfly lives for two weeks.
• Because butterflies are cold blooded, its body
  temperature changes with the temperature of the air.
• Before it can fly, a butterfly must warm its flight
  muscles.
• Butterflies bask in the sun to get warm enough to fly.
• When it is cool or the sun is not out, many butterflies
  are unable to fly.
• A butterfly has three pair of jointed legs. It uses
  its legs to "taste" by scratching the surface of a petal.
• Butterfly wings are more than jeweled transportation.
  Wing patterns help butterflies survive and reproduce by
  sending signals to other animals.
• Butterfly wings are actually clear. The colors we see
  result from: pigment on the underside of tiny scales
  covering the wings, the way light reflects from the surface
  of the wings, a combination of pigment and reflection.
• Typical Pigments are: yellow, red, black, and
  brown patches.
• Light refracted by prismatic scales on some wings
  create optical "tricks," making a butterfly appear
  iridescent or metallic like the blue morpho.
• Unique combinations of pigments and refracted light
  create the amazing diversity of pattern and color on
  butterfly wings.
• The world's most common butterfly is the cabbage white.
• Some female butterflies lay about 500 eggs in less
  than a week.
• Only about 1% of all buterfly eggs laid become
  adult butterflies.
• The owl butterfly uses its wing spots to scare
  predators.
• Wasps kill more butterflies than any other predator.
  They feed caterpillars to their young.
• The world's rarest butterfly is Queen Alexandrae's
  birdwing from Papua New Guinea (Ornithoptera
  alexandrae). The female can have a wingspan of up to 11". Habitat destruction threatens this beautiful animal
  with extinction.
• Victoria's birdwing butterfly lives only in tree
  tops where it can't be netted. It was first collected by
  scientists using a shotgun loaded with sand.
• Some caterpillars live in streams.
• Butterflies "taste" with their toes before sipping
  nectar from flowers.
• Butterflies lay eggs on the plant leaves that the
  caterpillars will later eat.
• The monarch caterpillar feeds only on the milkweed
  plant that is toxic to most other animals.
• The smallest butterfly, appropriately named pygmy
  blue (Brephidium exilis) measures in at a mere 1/2".
  This little guy can be found in the southern United States.
• Caterpillar droppings are called "frass."
• When temperatures drop in the fall, butterflies hide
  in cracks around houses or in the tree bark and stay
  there until spring.
• 80% of all butterfly species are found in the tropics.
• They look fragile, but Monarch butterflies can migrate
  1,300 miles from Canada to Mexico.
• As a butterfly grows, its appearance changes through
  metamorphosis, but it is always a butterfly.

ABOUT THE BIRDWING BUTTERFLY

• Papua New Guinea (PNG), a small nation located north of
  Australia, in another 20 years will likely be one of the
  last 4 places on earth to still have large tracts of virgin
  tropical forest.
• It has some pretty fantastic insects, including the
  world's largest butterfly (Queen Alexandra's Birdwing)
  and second largest (Goliath Birdwing) butterfly.
• The magnificent birdwing butterflies are only found
  in the region of New Guinea.
• Birdwings inhabit the sunny rainforest canopy,
  feeding on nectar-filled flowers growing many metres above
  ground level. The butterfly only comes to earth when
  the canopy dips into river channels or natural openings.
• Papua New Guinea is home to more than 700 different
  species of butterflies. This is more than two times the
  number of species found in the continent of Europe which
  is about six times larger than PNG.
• The reason for this diversity of butterflies and
  insects in general is the tropical climate and the
  mountainous topography.
• One example is the largest butterfly of the world,
  Queen Alexandra's birdwing (ornithoptera alexandrae) which
  is confined to the lowland rainforest of the Popondetta
  region in Oro Province, the giant females with a wingspan
  reaching 27.5 cm.
• The Richmond birdwing, one of the smallest birdwings,
  has a wingspan usually less than 15 cm.
• The birdwing butterflies are the largest and most
  spectacular butterflies in the world.
• About 30 tropical species occur from India,
  Southeast Asia to New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and
  eastern Australia.
• The birdwings depend on forest vines belonging to
  the genus Aristolochia, the food plants for their larvae.
• Though there are many species of aristolochia vines,
  the larvae of the birdwing species are often only able to
  develop on one or a few species of the vines.
• These vines have suffered from clearing for urban
  development, farming and forestry operations. Most species
  of the vines have declined in abundance, especially in the
  last 10 years, with some of the birdwings so dependent on
  them, now threatened with extinction.
• Birdwing butterflies have always been popular with
  collectors for mounting in display cases or as specimens
  for study. In Papua New Guinea in 1966, prices paid for
  good specimens took a leap when many of the rarer species
  were listed as protected species.
• This led to a lucrative trade in smuggled specimens
  which gained momentum when all species whether common or
  endangered, were listed by CITES as prohibited exports or
  imports.
• Birdwings protect themselves effectively by gliding
  well out of the reach of most nets.
• The Queen Alexandra's birdwing (Ornithoptera alexandrae)
  from Papua New Guinea and the Richmond birdwing
  (O. richmondia) from sub-tropical Queensland and New
  South Wales have, more than other birdwing butterflies,
  been faced with threats to their survival.
• This is due to both having relatively small
  distributions which are particularly prone to forest
  clearing, the loss of their food plants and their
  breeding grounds.
• In the birdwings belonging to the genus Ornithoptera
  the sexes are strikingly different: in males the powder
  blue, green, gold and black of Queen Alexandra's birdwing
  and the iridescent green and black of the Richmond birdwing,
  contrasts with the dark brown, spotted with white and cream
  females of both species.
• The females are nomadic and disperse between patches
  of rainforest in search of certain vines on which they
  lay their eggs.
• The reasons for Queen Alexandra birdwing's rarity and
  limited distribution have remained a mystery but it now
  seems that it is dependent on relatively high densities
  of the food plant to support its huge, ravenous larvae.
• For the Richmond birdwing, A. praevenosa is the only
  natural food plant for the larvae in lowland rainforests.
• The larvae of the Richmond and Queen Alexandra's
  birdwings are usually solitary on their vines since the
  soft leaves and terminal growth required when
  newly-hatched are in short supply and insufficient
  food for more than one.
• Starving larvae readily turn to cannibalism on another
  individual when it is temporarily immobile or moulting, a
  process which takes place 5-6 times as it grows before
  reaching the pre-pupal stage.
• In the lowland parts of their distribution, larvae of
  both rare birdwings feed only on one species of
  aristolochia and females bird wings do not lay eggs on any
  others even when present nearby in the same forests.
• While some plants defend themselves against insect
  attack by concentrating certain chemicals in their leaves,
  the birdwings have evolved a tolerance to compounds which
  would be poisonous to most other insects.
• The ornamental Dutchman's Pipe vine, Aristolochia
  elegans, originally from South America, attracts egg
  laying by most birdwing butterflies but the early larvae
  are poisoned when they feed on its leaves.
• For the Richmond birdwing the introduction of this
  vine has been a major disaster, speeding the extinction
  process particularly in National Parks and forested areas
  where Dutchman's Pipe has escaped to become a weed.
• Many species of butterfly are considered endangered or
  threatened by trade.



• The following species of birdwing butterflies are
  listed on CITES:


• Ornithoptera spp., Birdwing butterflies, II, 2/16/79
• Ornithoptera alexandrae, Queen Alexandra's birdwing,
  I, 2/4/77
• Ornithoptera allotei, Birdwing butterfly, II, 2/4/77
• Ornithoptera chimaera, Birdwing butterfly, II, 2/4/77
• Ornithoptera goliath, Birdwing butterfly, II, 2/4/77
• Ornithoptera meridionalis, Birdwing butterfly, II,
  2/4/77
• Ornithoptera paradisea, Birdwing butterfly, II, 2/4/77
• Ornithoptera victoriae, Birdwing butterfly, II, 2/4/77