Queen Alexandra's Birdwing - Largest Butterfly In The World...



Ornithoptera alexandrae, the Queen Alexandra's birdwing, is the largest butterfly in the world, with females reaching wingspans slightly in excess of 25 cm (9.8 inches). 
This birdwing is restricted to the forests of the Oro Province in eastern Papua New Guinea.
The species was named by Walter Rothschild in 1907, in honour of Alexandra of Denmark.
 The first European to discover the species was Albert Stewart Meek in 1906, a collector employed by Walter Rothschild to collect natural history specimens from New Guinea.
 Although the first specimen was taken with the aid of a small shotgun, Meek soon discovered the early stages and bred out most of the first specimens.
Female: Female Queen Alexandra's birdwings are larger than males with markedly rounder, broader wings. The female can reach, and slightly exceed, a wingspan of 25 cm (9.8 in), a body length of 8 cm (3.1 in) and a body mass of up to 12 g (0.42 oz), all enormous measurements for a butterfly. The female has brown wings with white markings arranged as two rows of chevrons. The hindwings are brown with a submarginal line of centred yellow triangles. The body is cream coloured and there is a small section of red fur on the brown thorax.
Male: There is sexual dimorphism in this species. The wings are long with angular apices. They are iridescent bluish green with a black central band. There is a pronounced sex brand. The underside is green or blue green with black veins. Males are smaller than females. The abdomen is bright yellow. The wingspan of the males is approximately 20 cm (8 in), but more usually about 16 cm (6.3 in). A spectacular form of the male is form atavus, which has gold spots on the hindwings.
The eggs are large, light yellow and flattened at the base, fixated to the surface on which they are laid by a bright-orange substance.
 Under ideal conditions, the female Queen Alexandra's birdwing is capable of laying over 240 eggs throughout its life.

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