Butterfly Wing of Bird of Paradise from Papua

 Ornitophera Paradisea (Photo:  HIMAKOVA IPB)

The following brief article is a translation from IPB University.

Ornitophera paradisea, known as the bird of paradise wing butterfly, is one of the endemic butterflies of Papua and West Papua. The butterfly wings of the bird of paradise are protected under Government Regulation no. 7 of 1999 concerning Preservation of Plant and Animal Species. According to the official IUCN website, the status of this butterfly is not yet of concern or Least Concern (LC) (Waikar et al. 2019).

The type Ornitophera paradisea has significant morphological differences between male and female butterflies (sexual dimorphism) which lies in the shape, size and color of the wings. This type of O. paradisea has a male wing span of 75 – 125 mm and the female 100 – 170 mm. O. paradisea males have black green forewings and black circles.

Ornitophera Paradisea

The hind wings are a mix of green, black and golden yellow. The tip of the hind wings has an elongated filamentous tail. The female wings are dark brown with a combination of gray. The hind wings of the female have a combination of light brown color and red on the lateral abdomen (Waikar et al. 2019).

The bright and unique color of the wings on the males makes the butterfly popular among butterfly collectors. O. paradisea is a very attractive butterfly and is included in the collection with the highest specimen prices in the world (UNEP-WCMC 2012).

Bibliography

Warikar EL, Ramandey ERPF, Maury HK. 2019. Analysis of the dimorphism of the bird-wing butterfly (Ornithoptera sp.) endemic to Papua. Papuan Biology Journal. 11(1): 1–7.

[UNEP-WCMC] United Nations Environment Program World Conservation Monitoring Centre. 2012. Reviews of butterflies from Asia and Oceania are subject to long-standing positive opinions. Cambridge (UK): UNEP-WCMC.

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