Ornithoptera croesus

Wallace's Golden Birdwing
Ornithoptera croesus male
Conservation status
Endangered (IUCN 2.3)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Papilionidae
Tribe:	Troidini
Genus:	Ornithoptera
Species:	O. croesus
Binomial name
Ornithoptera croesus Wallace , 1859

Ornithoptera croesus, commonly known as Wallace's Golden Birdwing is a species of birdwing butterfly found in northern Maluku.

It is a member of the Ornithoptera priamus species-group which, including croesus, is only found east of Weber's Line (see approximation Wallace Line). The larval foodplant is Pararistolochia. Matsuka (2001) illustrates the early stages (from N. Maluku; see also Igarashi, 1979).

Male (above) and female (below) Plate from Reise Fregatte Novara. Zoologischer by Rudolf Felder and Alois Friedrich Rogenhofer

Alfred Russel Wallace wrote In his book (The Malay Archipelago, 1869): "The beauty and brilliancy of this insect are indescribable, and none but a naturalist can understand the intense excitement I experienced when I at length captured it. On taking it out of my net and opening the glorious wings, my heart began to beat violently, the blood rushed to my head, and I felt much more like fainting than I have done when in apprehension of immediate death. I had a headache the rest of the day, so great was the excitement produced by what will appear to most people a very inadequate cause."

Conservation

Ornithoptera croesus was formerly considered Vulnerable by the IUCN, but is now listed as Endangered.

External links

• Ornithoptera croesus at Ngypal
• www.butterflycorner.net (English/German)

Natural Hybrids
O. rothschildi x O. priamus poseidon • O. victoriae x O. priamus urvillianus