Richmond birdwing butterfly
Common name: Richmond birdwing butterflyScientific name: Ornithoptera richmondia
Animal group: butterflies
Conservation status: This species is listed as Vulnerable in Queensland (Nature Conservation Act 1992).
Description: The Richmond birdwing is one of Australia’s largest butterflies with a wingspan of up to 15cm in females and 13cm in males.
Males and females differ in appearance with the females have dark grey or brown wings and the males have a black forewing with a distinctive iridescent green fore-edge. The male’s hindwing is predominantly iridescent green.
The mature larvae can grow up to 70mm long and are variable in colour, ranging from black to whitish grey. Larvae have a series of prominent, fleshy spines running along their dorsal surface. Immature larvae have two pairs of long, hairy spines.
The larvae are cannibals and are solitary (usually only one larvae is found on an individual food plant).
Habitat and distribution: Richmond birdwing butterflies live in subtropical rainforest where its larval host plants grow. It distribution once extended from Grafton in New South Wales to Maryborough in southern Queensland. Today it is only known in two areas from Caboolture to Kin Kin in the north and Nerang to Wardell in New South Wales in the south.
Food plants: The Richmond birdwing lays round, greenish-yellow eggs singly or in small clusters (up to three) on native Pararistolochia vines (P. praevenosa and P. laheyana). Both species of plant are listed as rare under the Nature Conservation Act 1992. Eggs are also laid on the introduced Dutchman’s pipe, Aristolochia elegans but the leaves are toxic and kill the larvae.
Threatening processes: In 1870 this species was reported as being abundant in the streets of Brisbane. Today, its rainforest habitat has been extensively cleared with less than one percent of the original area of this type of rainforest still in existence. The birdwing no longer exists in the Brisbane area.
Both of the plants that the larvae of this species feed on are now listed as rare under the Nature Conservation Act 1992. Some remnant colonies have now become isolated and inbreeding is resulting in the laying of sterile eggs. The introduced Dutchman’s pipe is also common in gardens and as a weed in bushland, creating a ‘death trap’ for any larvae that hatch out to feed on the plants.
Actions: Community and school replanting programs are underway to re-establish the birdwing’s food plants in areas that have been cleared in the past. At the same time the introduced Dutchman’s pipe is being removed.
An ‘adopt-a-caterpillar’ program is also being run by a number of schools. Caterpillars are bred in captivity and fostered out to schools for students to care for.
Further information:
Braby, M.F. (2000). The butterflies of Australia: their identification, biology and distribution. Volumes I and II. CSIRO Publishing.
Common, I.F.B. and Waterhouse, D.F. (1972). Butterflies of Australia. Angus and Robertson.
Sands, D.P.A. and Scott, S.E. (1998). Conservation and Recovery of the Richmond Birdwing Butterfly, Ornithoptera richmondia and its Lowland Food Plant, Pararistolochia praevenosa. CSIRO Science Education Centre, Indooroopilly.
Last updated: 21 August 2007
