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Text and photographs protected by Copyright © Adrian Hoskins 2007, and must not be published in part or in whole elsewhere without prior written permission from the author.
Butterflies of Malaysia and Borneo
 
Rajah Brooke's Birdwing
Trogonoptera brookiana WALLACE, 1855
Family - PAPILIONIDAE
subfamily - PAPILIONINAE
Tribe - TROIDINI
 
 introduction | habitats | lifecycle | adult behaviour
 
Rajah Brooke's Birdwing Trogonoptera brookiana albescens, West Malaysia
 
Introduction
 
With a wingspan of 17cms, and black wings adorned with metallic green markings, this is undoubtedly one of the most spectacular and beautiful butterflies in the world.
 
Rajah Brooke's Birdwing was discovered on Borneo in 1855 by the legendary explorer and naturalist Alfred Russell Wallace. It is widely distributed throughout Borneo, Sumatra, Palawan and the central states of West Malaysia, and in a few areas is very abundant, but populations tend to be very localised. It also occurs as a scarce species in Thailand.
 
Sadly the butterflies are killed in vast numbers, mainly by children, paid a pittance for the dead specimens by dealers who sell them on to gift shops. The majority are badly damaged because the children are rarely equipped with butterfly nets, and instead rely on killing the butterflies by throwing stones at them.
 
The subspecies trogon, which occurs on peninsular Malaysia in Johore state, and also on Sumatra and Palawan, differs slightly in appearance and behaviour from albescens, and is considered to be a separate species by some taxonomists.
 
Habitats
 
In West Malaysia the butterfly occurs in tropical rainforest habitats at altitudes from sea level to about 1200 metres but is commonest at about 500 metres.
 
Lifecycle
 
The globular reddish eggs are laid singly on the leaves of climbing vines of the genus Aristolochia.
 
The fully grown caterpillar is dark greyish brown, with a light grey saddle mark on the back. The body is adorned with buff and grey tubercles along the back and sides. As with other members of the Papilionidae the larva is equipped with an eversible forked structure ( osmaterium ) behind the head, which secretes a pungent fluid that deters ants, wasps and other predators.
 
The pupa is apple green, marked with violet, and is attached vertically by the cremaster and a silk girdle, to a vine stem.
 
Most tropical butterflies tend to be very seasonal in appearance, but in my experience Rajah Brooke's Birdwing is found in roughly equal numbers throughout the dry season, and in marginally reduced numbers in the rainy season.
 
Adult behaviour

 

The butterflies are powerful flyers, capable of travelling from one side of a river to the other with no more than 2 or 3 wing-beats. They habitually glide in tight circles when about to settle, whether on the ground or on the foliage of trees.

 

Males congregate at hot sulphur springs and other sources of minerals. In the Cameron Highlands foothills of Malaysia I have seen as many as 50 settled together on the banks of rivers, and at Mulu national park in Sarawak guides have told me that it is common to see as many as 100 assembled on dry river beds at certain times of year.

 

In Sabah the butterflies once assembled in vast numbers at Poring hot springs, but most of the area where the butterflies congregated has now been built on.

 

On Palawan and Sumatra males do not congregate, and are only rarely seen at sulphur springs, preferring instead to obtain their sustenance almost exclusively from the flowers of forest trees.

 

Males in Sarawak and Sabah also sometimes visit flowers for nectar - in the Danum valley for example I have often seen them in the company of Graphium sarpedon visiting the flowers of Bauhinia trees. They also visit Mussaenda bushes, and no doubt other plants as well, but do not seem to be attracted to Lantana.

 

Females are much scarcer. My visits to peninsular Malaysia and Borneo have enabled me to see upwards of 500 males, but only a single female - seen in flight as I crossed a rope suspension bridge on a minor tributary. Some authors postulate the notion that males outnumber females by a ratio of as high as 200:1, but it is more likely that the sexes occur in approximately equal numbers, but that the males due to their habits are far more visible.

 
                                                        
In common with most other butterflies in Malaysia, Borneo and Palawan, the habitats of this species are severely endangered. Rainforest only remains on the steepest mountain-sides, and at a small number of nature reserves. Many of the reserves are now threatened with reclassification and subsequent exploitation at the hands of major international companies.
 
Tragically, the huge areas of tropical rainforest which once covered the lowlands of West Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak have been almost entirely cleared, with only a few "islands" of original forest remaining, surrounded by vast oil palm plantations.
 
The forests of Kalimantan ( the Indonesian sector of Borneo ) have suffered a similar fate, and what little remains is now under severe threat,
as the protected status of nature reserves is being revoked to make way for concession areas that will be subjected to open cast coal mines, logging, and clearance for immense oil palm plantations to satisfy the demand for bio-diesel fuel.
 
The extent of the devastation is immense, and the consequences catastrophic, not only for butterflies, but also for orang-utans, proboscis monkeys, hornbills, and myriads of other mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and insects - our natural heritage is being annihilated.
 
You can help prevent further devastation - please lobby your governments, and contact the rainforest conservation organisations who organise on-line petitions and use scientific evidence to apply pressure to the governments of Malaysia and Indonesia to halt the devastation.
 
 
Text and photographs protected by Copyright © Adrian Hoskins 2007-2008, and must not be reproduced or published in part or in whole elsewhere in any form without written permission from Adrian Hoskins. Breach of copyright will be pursued by litigation.
 
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