Butterfly naming problems. Example O. paradisea.

There is a very detailed article by Brian Fletcher on O. paradisea paradisea from Madang, in the Conservation of Birdwing Butterflies book which is out of print, but this can be read on-line or downloaded at the editor's website which is

www.richmondbirdwing.org.au

The article also has colour photographs of the O. paradisea paradisea adults and early stages. [Click on the colour picture of the Birdwing Book on the above website homepage to read the article]

Peter

Here's a lovely print from the Rippon's magnificent Icones vol 1.
He refers to Paradisea var. Meridionalis. I remember an article discussing Meridionalis as a form of Paradisea not too long ago which confused the heck out of me. Could this be the origin of this strange rumor? As far as I can tell, what he referred to as Meridionalis looks very much like Arfakensis. I find it also very interesting that he drew the female Flavescens with large size dark spots on the hindwing, and more like what we would now call Detanii.

Thierry

Are the locations known of the pictured specimen?

Hannes

Thierry

When the first female O. meridionalis was caught by the collector Anthony in 1895 and sent to Walter Rothschild he described it in 1897 as [Troides] Ornithoptera paradisea meridionalis. Later when Meek caught the first male in 1899, Rothschild realized his mistake and named it as a new species. Rippon however in his very beautiful Icones Ornithopterorum seems to have been at first confused by this, because he clearly shows the O. meridionalis male as a species and the female as a subspecies of O. paradisea. It is interesting that he appears to show the type male O. paradisea from Erima, Astrolabe Bay and the type female from the Finisterre Mountains in Papua.

Peter.

In this thread, some of you may have seen that Larry Orsak and Dr Brian Fletcher studied the early stages of Ornithoptera paradisea paradisea during 1996 in the Kau reserve, north of Madang. I Have recently had personal communication with Legi Sam from Madang, a former Papuan research student who has studied and collected widely in Madang Province. He has told me of his sightings of the adult nominate O. paradisea which he observed during his recent travels. In his own words " During my studies in PNG at Madang, Baiteta, Baitabag, Kau, Ohu, Wanang and Finisterre Mtns, I recorded only two male individuals of O. paradisea in Wanang about 120km west of Madang. I have spoken to local villagers in the other locations and they report seeing this species also except in the Finisterre Mountains. Like you, I also think that this population is under threat" Legi also mentioned " I observed in Wanang what seemed to me a female individual O. paradisea female. However I was not able to verify its identity without catching the specimen. I only caught a male specimen which now resides in my collection in Madang".

Baiteta and Baitabag are in the area of Kau where the Orsak and Fletcher research took place. Ohu is a small rainforest reserve lying a short distance to the west of Madang. Wanang where Legi saw and captured O. paradisea lies in the Lower Ramu River Valley. Wanang conservation area was protected in 2000 by 11 village clans. This entire Lower Ramu area was designated as a logging concession, until the village clans formed the Wanang conservation areas and declared their forest off-limits for loggers.
Their actions have protected 10,000 ha of pristine lowland rainforest.

It now appears that the nominate O. paradisea paradisea is now the rarest Ornithoptera taxon and a very valuable to have in your collection. The exception might be O. chimaera flavidior, where again, so very few specimens have come forth from Papua in recent years.

Peter.

[Thierry see the O. meridionalis thread]

I collected in the area near the Christensen Research Institute research building that was built in Madang. That was in 1997. There was a local there who had a large net encloser built in preparation for breeding Ornithoptera paradisea paradisea for sale to IFTA. At the time I was collecting there he told me that he was waiting on permission from the PNG government to obtain breeding stock to begin his operation.