Golden Birdwing become India’s largest butterfly

A Himalayan butterfly named golden birdwing is become India’s largest, a record the southern birdwing held for 88 years.  With a wingspan of 194 mm, the female of the species is marginally larger than the southern birdwing (190 mm) that Brigadier William Harry Evans, a British military officer, and lepidopterist, recorded in 1932.

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The male golden birdwing (Troides Aeacus) is much smaller at 106 mm.

The new measurements of this and 24 other species of butterflies were published in the latest issue of Bionotes, a quarterly newsletter for research on life forms.

The hitherto largest Indian butterfly that Brigadier Evans recorded in 1932 was an individual of the southern birdwing (Troides minos), which was then treated as a subspecies of the common birdwing

While the female golden birdwing was recorded from Didihat in Uttarakhand, the largest male was from the Wankhar Butterfly Museum in Shillong

The updated wingspan of three species — all from Uttarakhand — after the golden birdwing is the common windmill (Byasa polyeuctes) at 98 mm, the great windmill (Byasa dasarada) at 96 mm, and the common peacock (Papilio bianor) at 78 mm.

The smallest is the quaker (Neopithecops zalmora) with a wingspan of 18 mm and a forewing length of a mere 8 mm.

The largest female golden birdwing’s forewing length is 90 mm.