Queen Alexandra's birdwing

The species was discovered in 1906 by Albert Stewart Meek, a collector employed by Walter Rothschild to collect natural history specimens from New Guinea. In the next year, Rothschild named the species in honour of Alexandra of Denmark. 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.[5]

Though most authorities now classify this species in the genus Ornithoptera, it has formerly been placed in the genus Troides or the now defunct genus Aethoptera. In 2001 the lepidopterist Gilles Deslisle proposed placing it in its own subgenus (which some writers have treated as a genus); he originally proposed the name Zeunera, but this is a junior homonym (with Zeunera Piton 1936 [Orthoptera]), and his replacement is Straatmana.[6]

For terms see External morphology of Lepidoptera.

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 to 28 cm (9.8 inches to 11 inches), 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 can be 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.[7]

Raising the flagship profile with mounted specimens, collected or bred when the insect was not endangered.

The Queen Alexandra's birdwing is considered endangered by the IUCN,[1] being restricted to approximately 100 km² (40 sq mi) of coastal rainforest near Popondetta, Oro Province, Papua New Guinea. It is nonetheless abundant locally and requires old growth rainforest for its long-term survival. The major threat for this species is habitat destruction for oil palm plantations. However, the eruption of nearby Mount Lamington in the 1950s destroyed a very large area of this species' former habitat and is a key reason for its current rarity.

The species is also highly prized by collectors, and because of its rarity, this butterfly fetches a very high price on the black market, reportedly US$8,500-10,000 in the United States in 2007.[8] In 2001, renowned Canadian researcher Gilles Deslisle was fined CA$50,000 for illegally importing six specimens of Queen Alexandra's birdwings.[9] In 2007, "global butterfly smuggler" Hisayoshi Kojima pleaded guilty to 17 charges after selling a number of endangered butterflies, including a pair of Queen Alexandra's birdwings priced at US$8,500, to a special agent with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.[8]

Early collectors, frustrated by the height at which adults fly during the day, often used small shotguns to down specimens, but because collectors demand high quality specimens for their collections, most specimens are reared from larvae or pupae.

Although collectors are often implicated with the decline of this species, habitat destruction is the main threat.

The species is listed on Appendix I of CITES, meaning that international commercial trade is illegal. At the 2006 meeting of the CITES Animals Committee, some suggested it should be moved to Appendix II (which would allow restricted trade in the species), as the conservation benefits of sustainable management perhaps are higher than those of the trade ban.[10]

• Conservation in Papua New Guinea
• Fauna of New Guinea
• Flagship species
• List of largest insects

• Parsons, Michael J. , 1984 The Biology and Conservation of Ornithoptera alexandrae. In: The Biology of Butterflies, edited by Vane-Wright & Ackery. Symposia R. ent. Soc. Lond. 11, pp. [327-332]
• Parsons, Michael J. , 1987 The Butterflies of Papua New Guinea.
• Parsons, M. J. 1992. The butterfly farming and trading industry in the Indo-Australian region and its role in tropical forest conservation. Tropical Lepidoptera 3 (Suppl. 1): 1-31.pdf Full text
• Parsons, M., 1999 The Butterflies of Papua New Guinea - Their Systematics and Biology. Academic Press, London
• Straatman, R. 1971 The life history of Ornithoptera alexandrae Rothschild Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society 1971 Volume 25:58-64.pdf
• D'Abrera, B. (1975) Birdwing Butterflies of the World. Country Life Books, London.
• Collins, N. Mark; Morris, Michael G. (1985). Threatened Swallowtail Butterflies of the World: The IUCN Red Data Book. Gland & Cambridge: IUCN. ISBN 978-2-88032-603-6 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
• Haugum, J. & Low, A.M. 1978-1985. A Monograph of the Birdwing Butterflies. 2 volumes. Scandinavian Press, Klampenborg; 663 pp.
• Deslisle, G. (2004) A taxonomic revision of the “birdwing butterflies of paradise”, genus Ornithoptera based on the adult morphology (Lepidoptera, Papilionidae). Lambillionea, 104 (4): 1 - 151.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ornithoptera alexandrae.

Wikispecies has information related to Ornithoptera alexandrae.

• Butterflycorner.net (English and German)
• Entry at Nagypal.net
• Southeastern peninsula of Papua New Guinea Ecoregion
• Pteron
• Enchanted Learning - Queen Alexandra's Birdwing Butterfly