The Ulysses butterfly belongs to the genus Papilo which is a part of the
swallowtail butterfly family Papilionidae that has over 550 species. Male
Ulysses butterflies are characterized by their brilliant blue coloured wings
that have black edges. Female Ulysses butterflies do not have as much blue on
their wings with the expectation of small blue crescents in the back
(wettropics).
Female (left) and
male (right) Ulysses butterfly by Thomas Neubauer.
Caterpillars
of the Ulysses butterfly are green colour with a yellow collar and spots. Their
favourite food comes from the pink Euodia (Melicope
elleryana). This butterfly is native to Australia, Indonesia, Papua New
Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The bright blue colour of the butterfly is used
to deter predators from eat them (australianbutterflies). One theory of the
butterfly wings is that the black colour is used to absorb sunlight similar to
a solar panel. Ulysses butterflies are attracted to any that has blue on it as
they think it is a female butterfly (Vukusic et al, 2004).
This
butterfly is under threat from deforestation as the pink Euodia they lay their
eggs on is been cut down for timber. It is also at risk of collectors as many
find this butterfly beautiful and want to add them to their collections (New
and Sands, 2002).
Next time, we will be covering a rat species that is
endemic to North Queensland.
References
New, T.R. & Sands, D.P.A. 2002, "Conservation
Concerns for Butterflies in Urban Areas of Australia", Journal of Insect
Conservation, vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 207-215
Vukusic, P., Sambles, J.R. & Lawrence, C.R. 2004,
"Structurally assisted blackness in butterfly scales", Proceedings of
the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, vol. 271, no. Suppl
4, pp. S237-S239.
picture references
https://en.butterflycorner.net/Papilio-ulysses-Mountain-Blue.schwalbenschwanz100.0.html
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