''Troides amphrysus'', the Malay birdwing, is a

birdwing Birdwings are butterflies in the swallowtail family, that belong to the genera ''Trogonoptera'', ''Troides'', and ''Ornithoptera''. Most recent authorities recognise 36 species, however, this is debated, and some authorities include additional ...

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

Troides ''Troides'' is a genus of birdwing butterflies, comprising species found in the Indian subcontinent, southeast Asia, and Oceania. Species Twenty species are recognized: : subgenus: ''Ripponia'' ::* '' Troides hypolitus'' – Rippon's birdwin ...

'' in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Papilionidae Swallowtail butterflies are large, colorful butterflies in the family Papilionidae, and include over 550 species. Though the majority are tropical, members of the family inhabit every continent except Antarctica. The family includes the larges ...

Taxonomy

Subspecies

*''T. a. amphrysus'' (

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

Bali Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...

) *''T. a. ruficollis'' (Butler, 1879 (

Peninsular Malaya Peninsular Malaysia ( ms, Semenanjung Malaysia; Jawi: سمننجڠ مليسيا), or the States of Malaya ( ms, Negeri-negeri Tanah Melayu; Jawi: نڬري-نڬري تانه ملايو), also known as West Malaysia or the Malaysian Peninsula, ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

) *''T. a. euthydemus'' (Fruhstorfer, 1913 (

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

) *''T. a. actinotia'' Jordan, 1909 (southern

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

) *''T. a. flavicollis'' (Druce, 1873) (northern

) *''T. a. niasicus'' (Fruhstorfer, 1898) (

Nias Nias ( id, Pulau Nias, Nias language: ''Tanö Niha'') (sometimes called Little Sumatra in English) is an island located off the western coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. Nias is also the name of the archipelago () of which the island is the centre, ...

) *''T. a. vistara'' Fruhstorfer, 1906 ( Batu Island) *''T. a. astrea'' Hayami, 1992 ( Banyak Island) *''T. a. arkumene'' Hayami, 1994 (

Tioman Tioman Island ( ms, Pulau Tioman) is a mukim and an island in Rompin District, Pahang, Malaysia. It is located off the east coast of the state, and is some long and wide. It has seven villages, the largest and most populous being Kampung Te ...

) *''T. a. chrysomelas'' Parrott & Schmid, 1984 (

Natuna ''(Sacred Ocean, Fortune Land) , image_map = , pushpin_map = Indonesia Riau Islands#Indonesia Sumatra#Indonesia#South China Sea , pushpin_map_caption = Location in Riau Islands##Location in Sumatra##Location in I ...

) *''T. a. simeuluensis'' Ohya, 1985 ( Simeuluë, Babi Island) *''T. a. perintis'' Kobayashi, 1986 ( Tambelan Island) *''T. a. kuris'' Kobayashi & Hayami, 1987 ( Anambas Island) *''T. a. hilbert'' Hayami, 1992 (

Karimata The Karimata Islands are a chain of small islands off the west coast of Indonesian Borneo, the largest of which is (Pulau) Karimata, being about across (east-west). It is part of Kayong Utara Regency of West Kalimantan province in Indonesia. Kar ...

) *''T. a. merah'' Kobayashi & Hayami, 1992 ( Simuk, Batu Island) *''T. a. zeus'' Kobayashi & Hayami, 1992 (

Sipora Sipora (Indonesian: ''Sipora'' or sometimes spelled ''Sipura'') located off Sumatra in the West Sumatra Province of Indonesia, is the second-smallest and most developed of the four Mentawai Islands at only 651.55 km2. It had a population o ...

Siberut Siberut is the largest and northernmost of the Mentawai Islands, located 150 kilometres west of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. It covers an area of 3,838.25 km2 including smaller offshore islands, and had a population of 35,091 at the 2010 Cens ...

, Mentawai) *''T. a. naokoae'' (Morita, 1996) (

Langkawi Langkawi, officially known by its sobriquet Langkawi, the Jewel of Kedah ( ms, Langkawi Permata Kedah ), is a duty-free island and an archipelago of 99 islands (plus five small islands visible only at low tide in the Strait of Malacca) locate ...

) *''T. a. kecilensis'' (Schäffler, 1999) ( P. Laut Kecil)

Related species

''Troides amphrysus'' is a member of the ''Troides amphrysus''

species group In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

. The members of this

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

are: *''Troides amphrysus'' (Cramer,

779 __NOTOC__ Year 779 ( DCCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 779 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Eur ...

*''

Troides andromache ''Troides andromache'', the Borneo birdwing , is a species of butterfly in the family (biology), family Papilionidae. It is Endemic species, found only in Borneo. Description The wingspan ranges from 150 to 180 mm (female), the hindwings ...

'' (Staudinger, 1892) *''

Troides cuneifera ''Troides cuneifera'', the Mountain Birdwing,Ek-Amnuay, P. (2012). Butterflies of Thailand. 2nd Edition (English) is a large butterfly belonging to the swallowtail family, Papilionidae, found in the Thai-Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java and Borneo ...

'' (Oberthür, 1879) *''

Troides miranda ''Troides miranda'', the Miranda birdwing, is a birdwing butterfly that inhabits Borneo and Sumatra. Related species ''Troides miranda'' is a member of the ''Troides amphrysus'' species group In biology, a species complex is a group of cl ...

'' (Butler, 1869)

Description

Male. The uppersides of the forewings are black or dark brown, with veins bordered by pale yellow. The uppersides of the hindwings are golden yellow, with black veins and black spots at the edges. Female. The basic colour of the females is black or dark brown, with veins bordered by white. The uppersides of the hindwings have a smaller golden-yellow area at the base and several yellow spots at the edges. In both sexes the undersides are similar to the uppersides. The abdomen is yellow, while the head and thorax are black.

Life history

HorsfieldMoorCatalogueEastIndiaCompanyLepidoptera2Plate6

The egg is large and round and a pearly colour. Eggs are deposited on the food plant and the incubation period is two weeks. The first

instar An instar (, from the Latin '' īnstar'', "form", "likeness") is a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, between each moult (''ecdysis''), until sexual maturity is reached. Arthropods must shed the exoskeleton in order to grow or ass ...

larva is black and bears numerous orange tubercles with short, black, branched spines. The intermediate instars 2, 3 and 4 are black. The thoracic segments have eight tubercles and the abdominal segments have six each. These are fleshy and lack spines. The dorsal tubercles of the 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and the 7th abdominal segments, are black. All the other tubercles are bright orange. In the penultimate and final instars the head is black and the thorax and abdomen is dark coffee brown. There is no saddle mark in this species. The tubercles are largely uniform in size, shape and of the ground colour. They are incline posteriorly and the apices are bent forwards to form small hooks. This species is not monophagous. The larvae feed on ''

Aristolochia ''Aristolochia'' () is a large plant genus with over 500 species that is the type genus of the family Aristolochiaceae. Its members are commonly known as birthwort, pipevine or Dutchman's pipe and are widespread and occur in the most diverse clima ...

'' - '' A. acuminata'' and '' A. foveolata'' and on various ''

Thottea ''Thottea'' is a genus of flowering plants in the pipevine family, Aristolochiaceae. Accepted species ''Plants of the World Online'' currently includes: # '' Thottea abrahamii'' Dan, P.J.Mathew, Unnithan & Pushp. # '' Thottea adichilthottiana' ...

'' species. The pupa is yellowish green and is marked with greyish veins as in a leaf. It has a broad dorsal saddle mark, this is lemon yellow transversely marked with brown streaks. The abdomen has three pairs of sharp dorsal processes, directed laterally. The pupal stage lasts from 27 to 30 days.=" Straatman, Raymond & Nieuwenhuis, Engbert Jan , 1961 Biology of certain Sumatran Species of Atrophaneura, Trogonoptera, and Troides (Lepidoptera, Papilionidae). ''Tijdschr. Ent.'' 104(3): 31-41

Distribution and habitat

This species can be found in the

Australasian realm The Australasian realm is a biogeographic realm that is coincident with, but not (by some definitions) the same as, the geographical region of Australasia. The realm includes Australia, the island of New Guinea (comprising Papua New Guinea and ...

and in the

Indomalayan realm The Indomalayan realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms. It extends across most of South and Southeast Asia and into the southern parts of East Asia. Also called the Oriental realm by biogeographers, Indomalaya spreads all over the Indi ...

, from

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. The

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

is primary and secondary

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...

Behaviour

In the morning the butterflies fly at 20 to 30 m high in the

canopy Canopy may refer to: Plants * Canopy (biology), aboveground portion of plant community or crop (including forests) * Canopy (grape), aboveground portion of grapes Religion and ceremonies * Baldachin or canopy of state, typically placed over an a ...

. Females rest on the foliage, while males glide in broad circles above them. The males perform an elaborate quivering courtship display several metres above the females, before copulation. Later in the day both sexes descend to feed on flowering trees and bushes including ''

Lantana ''Lantana'' () is a genus of about 150 species of perennial flowering plants in the verbena family, Verbenaceae. They are native to tropical regions of the Americas and Africa but exist as an introduced species in numerous areas, especially in ...

''.

References

Butterflycorner.net

Biolib
* Morita, S. 1996: A new subspecies of ''Troides amphrysus'' from Langkawi Is., Malaysia. ''Wallace'' 2: 5. * *Kurt Rumbucher, Béla von Knötgen and Oliver Schäffler, Knötgen 1999 Part 7, Papilionidae IV. Troides II., amphrysus-group in Erich Bauer and Thomas Frankenbach Eds. ''Butterflies of the World''. Keltern: Goecke & Evers .

External links

Consortium for the Barcode of Life The Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) was an international initiative dedicated to supporting the development of DNA barcoding as a global standard for species identification. CBOL's Secretariat Office is hosted by the National Museum of ...

br>''T. amphrysus amphrysus'' at Barcode of Life''T. amphrysus ruficollis'' at Barcode of Life
Images from Naturhistorisches Museum Wien (English/German)
''T. amphrysus ruficollis'' at Butterflies of Indochina
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3539874 Amphrysus Butterflies described in 1779 Butterflies of Asia Butterflies of Borneo Butterflies of Indochina Butterflies of Indonesia