Rajah Brooke's Birdwing

Description:

The wings of the male butterflies are mainly black. Each forewing has seven teeth-shaped electric-green markings, while there is a relatively large electric-green patch on the hindwings. The head is bright red and the body is black with red markings. The wings of the female butterflies are browner with prominent white flashes at the tips of the forewings and at the base of the hindwings.[3] Both genders resemble the more restricted relative, the Palawan Birdwing, but (among others) males of the Rajah Brooke's Birdwing have more green to the rearwings. The larval host plants are Aristolochia acuminata and A. foveolata.[3] Adults sip flower nectar from plants such as Bauhinia.[2]

Habitat:

The rainforests in the Thai-Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Natuna, Sumatra, and various small islands west of Sumatra (Banyak, Simeulue, Batu and Mentawai)

Notes:

The butterfly was named by the naturalist Alfred R. Wallace in 1855, after James Brooke, the Rajah of Sarawak.