Loading Luminary Oddities

Please wait while the next page arrives.

Identity

Ornithoptera priamus poseidon is a Papilionidae subspecies centred on New Guinea. The name archideus was originally applied to a female and is included in its synonymy. [1]

Appearance

Male forewings have pointed tips and adjoining green anal and submarginal bands; a median green stripe is usually present. The green hindwings have a narrow black border and individually variable black and golden spots. Females range from pale brown with shaded patches to dark brown with strongly contrasting cream-white areas. [1]

Range and habitat

Poseidon occurs across New Guinea, on surrounding islands and on several Torres Strait islands. It is primarily a lowland and coastal butterfly, with some populations in adjacent hills. [1][2]

Life cycle

In the later larval stages, the dorsal tubercles have less extensive red than in urvillianus: Straatman's comparison placed the red near the base in poseidon, while the tips remained black. [4]

Food and host plants

Adults visit Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, poinsettia and other flowering shrubs, sometimes well away from their larval breeding habitat. [2]

Behaviour

In controlled feeding tests, males and females preferred sucrose or fructose to glucose when solutions had equal concentrations of 25% by weight. [3]

Remarkable detail

The same experiments detected a sex-dependent tendency toward fructose in males and sucrose in females. Neither sex distinguished a Lantana-like nectar mixture containing amino acids from its corresponding sugar-only solution. [3]