Description
For terms see External morphology of Lepidoptera.
Male. The upperside fore wings are velvety black. There is a green (most races) subcostal stripe and a green (most races) marginal stripe bordering the termen, tormen and dorsum of the wing . The sex brand is black and longish.The underside of the forewing is black. There is a chain of bluish or green postdiscal spots.
The hind wings are green. At the wing leading edge (costa) there is a basal yellow-gold spots. There is also a postdiscal chain of black spots. The edge of the hind wing is black.
The underside is dark-green or bluish. The yellow - golden spots are transparent. The veins are partly black and the marginal edge of wing is black. At the outer edge there is a postdiscal chain of black spots.
The body (abdomen) is yellow. Head and thorax are black. The underside of thorax has a red hair-coat.
Female. Ornithoptera priamus is sexually dimorphic. The female is larger than the male and in the upper range of the wing-span. The basic colour of the female is dark-brown. There is a chain of white postdiscal spots on the fore wings. There is a chain of larger white postdiscal spots with dark centres on the hindwing. The underside is very similar to the upper.
Larva. First instar larvae are wine-red on hatching. They soon turn black or dark brown. All segments have soft tubercles with stiff ends bearing black spines. On segment 4 th tubercles are red. The tubercles are dark brown on the other segments. In the second instar the tubercles lack spines, the 4 th tubercles are light red and on the other segments they are the same colour as the body.In the third instar there is a white to pink saddlemark on the 4 th segment. In the fourth and fifth instars the ground colou is ashy-grey to brown, the saddlemark on the 4 th segment is white and the tubercles on the 4 th segment are white. There may be saddlemarks on the 5 th segment and the 5 th segment.The tips of the tubercle are black and the osmeterium is dark red.
Pupa. The pupa is yellowish-green or brown and is marked with greyish veins as in a leaf. It may have a broad dorsal pale saddle mark.The abdomen has 8 pairs of sharp dorsal processes, directed laterally.
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