Queen Alexandra's birdwing is a species of butterfly in the genus Ornithoptera which is native to the forests of the Oro Province in eastern Papua New Guinea. The species was first described 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. Queen Alexandra’s birdwing is notable at being exceptionally hard to catch often flying several hundred feet in the air and resting in the branches of the jungle canopy. To overcome this difficult Meek resorted to taking the first specimens with aid of a small shotgun, however in the months to come Meek soon discovered the caterpillar forms and began to dutifly breed them in captivity. Female Queen Alexandra's birdwings are considerably larger than males with markedly rounder, broader wings reaching around 3 inches long, 12 grams in weight, and sporting a 9 to 11 inch wingspan, compared to males at around 1.5 inches long, 6 grams in weight, with a 6-8 inch wingspan. It is the largest butterfly species on earth. When the wings are open, the female butterflies display a brown coloration with white marks patterned in a pair of rows of chevrons in their primary wings, while the hindwings are also brown, but having submarginal lines of centered triangles in dull white to yellow. The males show an iridescent blue-green hue in both the primary and secondary wings along with a black band at the center. When the wings are closed, both the sexes display a fainter version of the dorsal sides along with darker veins. As caterpillars they have a black body with red tubercles all over, as well as a saddle or band of cream color at the center of their body and almost exclusively feed upon the Aristolochia schlecteri a species of toxic pipevine. It takes around six weeks for the insect to reach the stage of the chrysalis. The cocoon has a golden yellow to tan coloration with distinct black marks on the body. This stage lasts for about a month or sometimes a little more before the adults emerge. As adults Queen Alexandra’s birdwing feed on the nectar of a variety of flowers and are themselves occasionally preyed upon by birds and orb weaver spiders. During there brief 3 month life span as adults, this butterflys mate frequently, often every morning. With females being capable of laying over 240 eggs throughout there life.

Not this again 😂😂😂

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September is going to be a very cute month for my sticker club 🧚✨💜

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staff week at camp has been so lovely! butterflies and ladybugs and old friends and new friends... looking for four-leaf clovers in the grass... helping serve lunches and getting a chocolate bar for a special job well done... old memories held dear and new ones being welcomed in with open arms... oh golly, it's just splendid!! happy day!!! :D

i just called the “queen alexandra's birdwing”-butterfly “the queen alexandrias genesis” anyway how’s your day going

I should never be allowed to draw butterfly wings with reference again

Had art block for like, a month.. Finally was able to draw again, might've gone just a tiny bit overboard.

Her colors and wings are based on the Queen Alexandra's Birdwing Butterfly. Go look them up, so pretty.

🦋🤣🤣🤣🤣

Fairy butterflies!

The Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing the largest butterfly in the world

I had a dream I couldn’t identify a common live-butterfly-exhibit butterfly but upon waking I realized that it wasn’t a real species… i still got it

the butterfly queen

Queen Alexandra Birdwing ❤

(Send me a butterfly or moth species and I’ll draw a fancy shawl dancer inspired by it)

Abronia graminea [Mexican alligator lizard] with Queen Alexandra’s birdwing butterfly wings and morning glories ✨🧚💜🦋

The main piece for September’s Patreon rewards! This beauty will be made into prints and vinyl stickers~ Join before Sept 30th to receive them in the mail 💙

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Kinger showing us his insect collection

The butterflies are Monarch butterfly(top left), Queen Alexandra's Birdwing(top right), Japanese Emperor(bottom left) and King Swallowtail(bottom right)