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Saturday, June 13, 2009

Rajah Brooke's Birdwing

The Raja Brooke
Rajah Brooke's Birdwing by MeiLyn

Rajah Brooke's Birdwing (Trogonoptera brookiana) is a distinctive black and electric-green birdwing butterfly from the rainforests of Borneo and the Malaysian Peninsula. The butterfly was named by the naturalist Alfred R. Wallace in 1855, after James of Sarawak, the Rajah of Sarawak.

ER Troides (Trogonoptera) brookiana albescens (Rajah Brooke's Birdwing)
Rajah Brooke's Birdwing by garnet_mermaid

The wings of the male butterflies are black and each forewing has seven teeth-shaped electric-green markings (the smaller hindwings are also black with green markings). 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. The larval host plant is Aristolochia foveolata. Adults sip fruit juices and flower nectar. Classification: Family Papillonidae, Subfamily Papilloninae.

Rajah Brooke's Birdwing is a protected species, listed under Appendix II of CITES

The butterfly is the national butterfly of Malaysia.

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