D.Y.K.

Golden Birdwing: India’s largest butterfly

Golden Birdwing, Himalayan butterfly

A Himalayan butterfly named Golden Birdwing (Troides aeacus) is India’s largest butterfly. 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, had recorded in 1932. But the male Golden Birdwing is much smaller at 106 mm. While the female Golden Birdwing was recorded from Didihat in Uttarakhand, the male was from the Wankhar Butterfly Museum in Shillong.

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