Description
Ornithoptera paradisea is a large butterfly with a wingspan ranging from 140 mm to 190 mm. Males and females differ in the size, shape and colour of the wings.
Male.Males have black fore wings. The costal edge is black and there are two large, yellow gold and green bands. The underside of the male forewing is green with black veins and at the apex there is a black area. The hind wings are tiny triangles, golden and with thin tails. The inner edge of the hind wing is black and there is usually a green stripe between the golden area and the inner edge. The outer edge of the hind wing is usually green.The underside is very similar to the upperside but the inner edge is green and hairy. The hindwings have tails of uncertain selective origin.The only other tailed Ornithoptera is Ornithoptera meridionalis The abdomen is yellow, the head and thorax are black and green.
Female. O. paradisea is strongly sexually dimorphic and the significantly larger female covers the upper range of the wing-span.The basic colour is dark-brown. Two groups of white spots dominate the fore wing and on the hind wings there is a white area with a yellow outer edge. Between these there is a chain of black spots. The underside is very similar to the upperside, but the colours are stronger. The abdomen is yellow, the head and thorax are black and green.
Read more about this topic: Ornithoptera Paradisea
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“A sound mind in a sound body, is a short, but full description of a happy state in this World: he that has these two, has little more to wish for; and he that wants either of them, will be little the better for anything else.”
—John Locke (1632–1704)
“He hath achieved a maid
That paragons description and wild fame;
One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St. Paul’s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)