Ornithoptera alexandrae "A rare betterfly specie''

                                   ornithoptera alexandrae, the Queen Alexandra's birdwing, is the largest butterfly in the world, with females reaching wingspans slightly in excess of 25 cm (9.8 inches).It is restricted to the forests of the Oro Province in eastern Papua New Guinea.

The species was named by Walter Rothschild in 1907, in honor of Alexandra of Denmark. The first European to discover the species was Albert Stewart Meek in 1906, a collector employed by Walter Rothschild to collect natural history specimens from New Guinea.

There are two type of ornithoptera alexandrae, male and 

female.

• Female: Female Queen Alexandra's birdwings are larger than males with markedly rounder, broader wings. The female can reach, and slightly exceed, a wingspan of 25 cm (9.8 inches), a body length of 8 cm (3.2 inches) and a body mass of up to 12 grams (0.42 oz), all enormous measurements for a butterfly. The female has brown wings with white markings arranged as two rows of chevrons. 
• Male:  The wings are long with angular apices. They are iridescent bluish green with a black central band. There is a pronounced sex brand. The underside is green or blue green with black veins. Males are smaller than females. The abdomen is bright yellow. The wingspan of the males is approximately 20 cm, but more usually about 16 cm. A spectacular form of the male is form atavus, which has gold spots on the hindwings.

Threats and conservation

• The Queen Alexandra's birdwings is considered endangered by the IUCN,being restricted to approximately 100 square kilometers of coastal rain forest near Popondetta, Oro Province, Papua New Guinea. 
• It is nonetheless abundant locally and requires old growth rainforest for its long-term survival. The major threat for this species is habitat destruction for oil palm plantations. However, the eruption of nearby  Mount Lamington in the 1950s destroyed a very large area of this species' former habitat and is a key reason for its current rarity.
  
  
  
  
• The species is also highly prized by collectors, and because of its rarity, this butterfly fetches a very high price on the black market, reportedly US$8,500-10,000 in the United States in 2007.In 2001, renowned Canadian researcher Gilles Deslisle was fined CA$50,000 for illegally importing six specimens of Queen Alexandra's birdwings. 
• Early collectors, frustrated by the height at which adults fly during the day, often used small shotguns to down specimens, but because collectors demand high quality specimens for their collections, most specimens are reared from larvae or pupae.
• The species is listed on Appendix I of CITES, meaning that international trade is illegal. At the 2006 meeting of the CITES Animals Committee some suggested it should be moved to Appendix II (which would allow restricted trade in the species), as the conservation benefits of sustainable management perhaps are higher than those of the trade ban.