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3 unusual facts about Ornithoptera paradisea


John Stanislaw Kubary

Kubary discovered at least four bird species -- the Samoan Wood Rail (Gallinula pacifica), the Mariana Crow (Corvus kubaryi), the Caroline Islands Ground Dove (Gallicolumba kubaryi), and the Pohnpei Fantail (Rhipidura kubaryi) -- as well as numerous insects, among them the Paradise Birdwing (Ornithoptera paradisea).

Ornithoptera paradisea

The only other tailed Ornithoptera is Ornithoptera meridionalis The abdomen is yellow, the head and thorax are black and green.

Arnold Pagenstecher and Staudinger both described this butterfly, under different names and the first description by Staudinger was based on a manuscript sent to him by Pagenstecher who possessed specimens from the collection of D. Wolf von Schönberg in Naumburg who had acquired them from a colonist in the then German New Guinea.



see also