Ornithoptera alexandrae. When in psyche a bird
All good health and good mood!
This post is devoted to amazing and beautiful butterflies, which amaze their beauty and sizes. This moths keep title of the largest and rare daytime lepidoptera.
To meet! This is the Queen Alexandra's birdwing (Ornithoptera alexandrae).
This butterflies is magnificant, don't say otherwise. The males can bright yellow abdomen, and other body parts is black. Thir wings are elongated and narrow, and have stunning optical coloration, which generate blazing owerflows from light-blue to light-green or even pale yellow.
Females have less bright colors. In their coloring there is a dominance of black and brown. The abdomen is yellow too. The wings more broad and powerful, their coloration is dark-broun with white macules and demilune between weins. The female's wingspan significantly more than in males and it can to exsceed 26 - 27 cm.
This big and rare butterflies are found only in the rainforests of the Oro province in Papua New Guinea. They lead a diurnal lifestyle, eat nectar of orchids and can the habit of the high flight. Their giant caterpillars eat a leaves of the Pararistolochia dielsiana and P. schlechteri.
The history of opening of this species is very interesting. The first of founding female was shot down by hunters with shotgun which was loaded the shot for small birds. What was their surprise when they found the giant insect instead of a bird!
Unfortunately, in this moment the Queen Alexandra's birdwing is rare and extincting species. The eruption of Lamington in 1951 destroyed 250 square kilometers of rainforests in live area of this butterflies, and later, their territory decreased still further because of a predatory deforestation. In this moment, this area is under protection, and catching the birdwings is punishable by prison time.
If you have heard about some unusual living organism, but you know almost nothing about it and want to see it in this section - leave orders in the comments. I will take into account your wishes and write about this creature in one of the next posts.
The magnificent and rare creature...
Yours sincerely, @ivprst.