Birdwing butterfly

Description

Males of O.meridionalis are remarkable in that they have an extremely small amount of wing area relative to its rather bulky body.In particular,the hindwings are very reduced and tetragonal in shape,tapering into a single pair of filamentous tails that are easily broken.The only other tailed Ornithoptera is Ornithoptera paradisea.Specimens of this sex are weak fliers and tend to spend most of the day resting.Females are more normally proportioned and have a flight characteristic more typical of the genus Ornithoptera.Both sexes have been recorded feeding at flowers in numbers early in the morning.