Rain forest Butterflies

Hello, welcome to the butterflies part of our virtual museum! Meet the butterfly that rests like a moth! Meet the butterfly that lays its eggs on mistletoe! This part of our virtual museum is packed with information on the birdwing butterfly, blue morpho, regent skipper, richmond birdwing butterfly, ulysses butterfly, and union jack.
    The birdwing butterfly is the largest butterfly in the world.  The females have a wingspan of about one foot. The males have a wingspan just a little smaller than the females.
    Birdwing butterflies live on the riverbanks and treetops of rain forests in New Guinea and some islands nearby. They are also found in Australia, Southeast Asia, Ceylon and Southern India.
    The females are bigger than the males, but the males are more colorful. Their bodies can be a lot of different colors.  They can be red, orange, yellow, green, and blue.  They have wings with lots of different colors. The wing colors are amber, gold and emerald. The wings are iridescent, which means they sparkle and change different colors in the light.
    The birdwing butterfly got its name because it has long, thin front wings.  Its back set of wings are smaller and rounder.  They look like birds flying. Males usually fly around riverbanks, while the females hang around in the canopy.
    Birdwing butterflies eat nectar out of different kinds of flowers.  Males will also eat rotting fruit and flowers.


     The blue morpho lives in both Central America and South America.  When it flies through the rain forest, it seems to be there, then it disappears. That's because the underside of the wings are brown for camouflage and the top of its wings are an electric blue.


     Scientists think the regent skipper is the closest tie between the butterfly and the moth.  Two reasons are because it rests with its wings open and the males have an organ called the frenulum, which keeps the hind wings together while they're flying.  Adult regent skippers usually stay in the rain forest.


    In Australia, the clearing of a large subtropical rain forests led to the decline of the richmond birdwing butterfly.  The caterpillars only eat one special type of vine called the birdwing butterfly vine.  As the rain forest disappears, the butterflies can't find enough of this vine to lay their eggs on.  Fortunately, the people at Bulunyah Nursery are trying to do something about this problem.  They are growing the birdwing butterfly vine and they will give it to local schools and home gardeners who are interested in raising this butterfly.

    The ulysses butterfly is one of the most easily recognized because of its electric blue wings.  It is found mostly in upland rain forest areas.  Sometimes it is called the mountain blue because it looks so much like it.


     The union jack is located in the tropical rain forests of Northern Queensland, which is in Northern Australia.  It is almost all white, except for the red and yellow on its underside.  Females have more black than the males.  The green caterpillars that are the larvae of the Union jacks eat the leaves of mistletoe, until they are ready to pupate, or shed their skin, and become a chrysalis. Sometimes if you are in the rain forest and look on the underside of a leaf, there might be several chrysalis.

                                              Page created by Meghan                    Photos: credit 25
 
 

This page was created by Eleva-Strum sixth grade students
supported by a Cluster A Goals 2000 Grant|Created 4.14.99|Updated 4.14.99
You may contact us at 12345@ecol.net


 






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