Ornithoptera aesacus Ney, 1903

OCCURENCE

Habitat: Forest - Subtropical/Tropical Moist Lowland
There is very little information available on the life history or habitat requirements of this species. The native vegetation on the island of Obira is monsoon forest with areas of both virgin primary forest, surrounding the highest peak at the centre of the island, and previously logged lowland secondary forest (Collins and Morris 1985). The foodplant of this species is thought to be Aristolochia spp. (D'Abrera 1971, Matsuka 2001).
(IUCN 2020)

Population: There is no quantitative information available on the population status of this species. It was considered very rare by D'Abrera (1971) and Collins and Morris (1985).
Range: This little known species is thought to be limited to the Indonesian island of Obira in the Maluku islands (D'Abrera 1971, Haugum and Low 1979, Collins and Morris 1985, Matsuka 2001). The species is only found at low altitudes with a maximum of around 200 m Asl (Matsuka 2001). The island has an area of just 2,542 km?, resulting in an estimated extent of occurrence for this species of around 2,900 km?, which is below the threshold for Endangered under criterion B1. Removing unsuitable elevations from the distribution, an approximate area of occupancy is estimated at 1,045 km?. This is likely an over-representation of the species' true area of occupancy. Given the prevalent threats of habitat loss from logging and gold mining, which are likely to be relatively localised, the species is likely to occur in more than five localities, although lack of detailed occurrence data prevents us from making a robust assessment.
(IUCN 2020)

Occurrence and observation maps

Map of Life
GBIF
i-Naturalist

References

• Collins, N.M. and Morris, M.G. 1985. Threatened Swallowtail Butterflies of the World. The IUCN Red Data Book. IUCN, Gland and Cambridge.
• D'Abrera, B. 1971. Butterflies of the Australian Region. Lansdowne Press, Melbourne.
• Haugum, J. and Low, A.M. 1979. A Monograph of the Birdwing Butterflies. Scandinavian Science Press, Klampenborg.
• IUCN. 2020. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2020-3. Available at: www.iucnredlist.org. (Accessed: 10 December 2020).
• Matsuka, H. 2001. Natural History of Birdwing Butterflies. Matsuka Shuppan, Tokyo.