Ornithoptera victoriae (Gray, 1856)

MORPHOLOGY

External characteristics

Male 

Forewings: Forewing elongate, hind margin and outer margin an almost evenly fluent line; upperside black, green in basal quarater, golden yellow in apical third; underside forewing black, but cell and proximal half of internervular spaces 1c to 7 golden yellow. Hindwings Hindwing upperside green from just before cubitus to front margin and from base to end of cell, golden yellow in spaces 2-6; from inner margin to almost cubitus black, and along outer margin and front margin narrowly black; underside golden yellow, black marginal dots at end of veins 3 to 6 or 7.

Female  
Similar to male but on forewing pale outlining of veins of cell and double stripes between the veins more prominent, and on hindwing more red spots in tornal area and on underside, in addition to the tornal red spots there are submarginal lunules in spaces 3-7.  

Subspecies and variation

 
Four subspecies are recognized, slightly differing in the extent of the spotting. To be further explained

Similar species

The elongate forewing of the male is also found in O. alexandrae, but the coloration makes O. victoriae unmistakable. The female is reminiscent of female O. priamus, but the yellow at the wing bases on the underside and the small submarginal spots on the hindwing in O. victoriae are missing in O. priamus.

 

_{source: Jan Moonen, peronal communication 2020}