TAXONOMY AND SPECIES

2. Ornithoptera akakeae (Kobayashi & Koiwaya, 1978)

     natural hybrid between Ornithoptera rothschildi x Ornithoptera priamus poseidon

FORMAE: -

LOCATION: 

West-Papua, Arfak mountains,  between 2000 and 2700 metres. Very small range area.

INFORMATION:

Ornithoptera akakeae is the name given to a birdwing butterfly that is a natural hybrid between and Ornithoptera rothschildi and Ornithoptera priamus poseidon.

Despite the fact that hybrids do not warrant abinomial name, he nameOrnithoptera akakeae persists from the original description of the butterfly as a species. It is now being commercially bred.

History: 

The hybrid was known from a single male specimen that was collected on a mountain near the Arfak Mountains of f Papua Province of Indonesia on 19 September 1977 by I. Toeante. In 1978 Kobayashi and Koiwaya, believing that the specimen represented an undiscovered species, described the butterfly asOrnithoptera akakeae.

It was later concluded, however, to be a hybrid betweenO. rothschildi and O. priamus poseidon by Haugum and Low in 1979.

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This species was first recognized by entomologist Charles Edgar Pratt and described by George Kenrick in 1911. It was named in honour of Lord Walter Rothschild who financed most of the expeditions of the naturalist Antwerp Edgar Pratt (1850-1924) and his two sons, Carl Brenders Pratt and Felix Biet Pratt, to British New Guinea from 1902–1903 and to the Arfak Mountains of Dutch New Guinea from 1909–1910.

Description: 

The females can reach a wingspan up to 15 centimetres (5.9in). The forewings are dark brown to blackish brown with creamy white to greyish spots. The hindwings rimmed with black scales and have a central patch of golden with black tips. The abdomen has hairy black rings. The wingspan of the males is approximately 13cm (5.1in) and the body length up to 13cm (5.1in). The forewings of the males are surrounded with black scales and in the central area with blackish, yellowish-green and yellow scales. The hindwings have black scales on the edge. The central patch is yellow with black tips abutting with smaller spots which are coloured lime green. The abdomen is golden.

Rothschild's Birdwing has the most restricted distribution of all birdwings. Its habitat are flowering meadows in an altitude of 2,000–2,700 metres (6,600–8,900ft) above sea level.