HOLOTYPES:
ORNITHOPTERA ALLOTEI was described by Sir Walter Rothschild in 1914 as a species, despite the assertion by its real discoverer,Abbé Allotte, a priest at the Buin Mission, Bougainville Island, that it was a natural hybrid.
It was originally placed in the genus Troides.
The female was described by H.M. Peebles and W. Schassmann in 1917.
Schmid (1970), McAlpine (1970) and Haugum & Low (1978) all held the hybrid theory but the final proof of O. allotei being a natural hybrid was made by Ramon Straatman ( Jan Haugum in 'Papilio International'(1990)).
3. GYNANDROMORPH