Cairns Birdwing Butterfly

Facts about Cairns Birdwing Butterfly, "Scientific name for Cairns Birdwing Butterfly is Ornithoptera euphorion" Cairns Birdwing Butterfly is an Ornithoptera type butterfly that comes from the Papilionidae family. The Cairns Birdwing Butterfly are native to Australia and they are largely found in the northeastern parts of Australia. The Cairns Birdwing Butterfly is the largest prevalent butterfly variety of Australia and they are commonly called by other names, such as the Northern Birdwing and the Cooktown Birdwing. The Cairns Birdwing Butterfly attained the name Cairns with respect to the city of Australia, where the butterfly is originated. The Cairns Birdwing Butterfly prefer to live in the rainforest of the Queensland damp tropics area, as well as the riverine woodland, and particularly close to the coastline. The Cairns Birdwing Butterfly can also be seen in Cairns, where they are attracted by the flowers of Hibiscus, Lantana and Bougainvillea in housing gardens. The Cairns Birdwing butterfly is copious all through its range and it is not a threatened species.

Features

The Cairns Birdwing butterfly is a small size butterfly and the male butterflies have a maximum wingspan of 125 mm, whereas the females have a wingspan of 150 mm. Male butterflies boast a predominately black color upper wing with emerald green color twinkles, whereas the female Cairns Birdwing Butterfly are short of the green color, having a pure black color upper wing, with white color patches. Usually, the female butterflies are bigger than the males.
A Cairns Birdwing Butterfly has three pairs of legs and their feet have little claws that help them stand on flowers. The Cairns Birdwing Butterfly wings are made up of hard tubes that are covered with a thin tissue. The Cairns Birdwing Butterfly wings are covered with fine dusty like scales. A Cairns Birdwing Butterfly has four brightly colored wings having distinctive patterns made up of tiny scales. The bright patterns scales sometimes have hidden ultraviolet patterns for attracting mates. The bright colors are also used as camouflage to hide them or scare off predictors.

There is a stunning and an uncommon hereditary mutation of the Cairns Birdwing butterfly, where a sole abnormal female butterfly will produce less than 40 unusual offspring. The female offspring will have a paler body in place of darkness, and the male offspring will have the golden color body in place of green.

Diet

The adult Cairns Birdwing butterflies feed on the nectar of the flowers of food plants such as Hibiscus, Lantana and Bougainvillea in housing gardens. The larvae feed on the leaves of the food plants, such as Aristolochia acuminata, Pararistolochia australopithecurus, and P. sparusifolia.

Breeding

The female Cairns Birdwing butterfly lays eggs that are somewhat big in size and it is capable of laying a maximum of 300 eggs in her lifespan. The larvae of the Cairns Birdwing Butterfly are extremely similar to that of other varieties, with colors that range from light to shady grey. Similar to most other varieties of its genus, the pupa of the Cairns Birdwing butterflies is yellow and light brown in color.

Behavior

Adult male Cairns Birdwing butterflies have been recognized to protect female butterflies with which they have lately mated, perhaps to make sure that the Sphragis does not turn out to be dislocated by another male butterfly, as it will not completely become firm pending a day after mating. Both genders of Cairns Birdwing butterflies prop up their weight while feeding at flowers by swiftly fluttering their wings. Occasionally, male butterflies vie for flowers with other nectar feeding species, such as tiny birds, and generally thrive at repelling them by flying towards them violently. Adult Cairns Birdwing butterflies are extremely probable to be inedible to vertebrates, owing to feeding on Aristolochia during their larva stage, even though they turn out to be a prey of the Golden silk orb-weaver occasionally.

Cairns Birdwing Butterfly are insects. A Cairns Birdwing Butterfly is a herbivore; Meaning that as a caterpillar its first food is its own eggshell and than it will eat the leaves of the plant on which it is hatched. When it becomes a butterfly, it will feed mostly on nectar from flowers, rotting fruit and water with a "proboscis" - a long narrow tube in their mouth that looks like a straw.

Life cycle of a Cairns Birdwing Butterfly comes in four stages, egg, larva "caterpillars", pupa "chrysalis" and adult Butterfly.
A Cairns Birdwing Butterfly will attach its eggs to leaves with a special glue.

When Cairns Birdwing caterpillars become fully grown they will attach to an appropriate leaf or small branch, than they will shed the outside layer of their skin and a hard skin underneath known as a "chrysalis" will be their new look
An adult Cairns Birdwing Butterfly will come out from the "chrysalis" than it waits a few hours for its wings to dry and fill with blood, before it takes its first flight.

Cairns Birdwing Butterfly can see yellow, green, and red. An adult Cairns Birdwing Butterfly average life span is from a week to a year
The top flight speed of a Cairns Birdwing Butterfly is 12 miles per hour (19 Km/ph) and some moths can fly up to 25 miles per hour (40 Km/ph).
A Cairns Birdwing Butterfly is cold-blooded, which means the body temperature is not regulated on its own. A Cairns Birdwing Butterfly can't fly or eat if their body temperature is below 82 degrees fah (28 cel). Cairns Birdwing Butterfly are often basking in the sun with their wings open to gain heat and than the veins in the wings carry the heat to the body.
A Cairns Birdwing Butterfly has sense organ, on their feet or tarsi, for tasting
The estimate is between 15000 and 20000 different species of butterfly.

A Cairns Birdwing Butterfly has a small body, made up of three parts – the head, abdomen and thorax. A Cairns Birdwing Butterfly has two large eyes, which are made up of many small parts which are called "compound eyes".
A Cairns Birdwing Butterfly has two antenna's on the top of their heads, which they use to smell, hear and feel. A Cairns Birdwing Butterfly mouth is a long tube a "proboscis" - a long narrow tube in their mouth that looks like a straw when its done eating, it rolls the tube back up.