Hey yawl it’s me again! This week I’m going to be talking about the Queen Alexandra Birdwing butterfly. This is an extremely beautiful butterfly as well as the world’s largest butterfly. It’s known to be bigger than most birds that are found in the rainforest! How awesome is that?! Well i hope the information is enjoyable about this amazing butterfly!!! The wingspan of this butterfly can be up to 12 inches across, which is usually only said for the females. Go Girls! The females are always bigger than the males but always more dull in color. The females are usually dark with off white or yellow markings, while the eye catching males are mainly a pale blue, lavender, or yellow on black. The caterpillars of this butterfly eat a plant that is known to be toxic to humans and many other animals. After ingesting the plant the caterpillars become toxic to their predators. It takes the Alexandra up to four months to complete the four stages of its life. As an adult it can live up to three more months. 
They are found in the rainforests of Papua New Guinea. They spend all of their adult lives in that canopy of the rainforest. It is rare to see them near the ground of the rainforest. The population of this butterfly used to be in the thousands but because the clearing of rainforests is increasing for human living, farming, and the need for more oil pal, rubber, and cocoa plantations it has declined to only a few left existing. Because of the butterfly’s great size it is sought out by many collectors. The capture and mounting of these butterflies has also affected its numbers. We can only hope that something is put in effect, that works, to help save these amazingly beautiful and rare butterflies.
Hey guys! This week I’m going to be talking about the Mourning Cloak Butterfly! This butterfly, to me, is one of the most fascinating due to its ability to survive through the winter. I love the name of this one too, which refers to its resemblance to a traditional cloak worn when one was mourning the death of a loved one. Very unique i believe. Well I hope it's enjoy learning more about them! The Mourning Cloak butterfly can be identified by its short projections on both of its wings, which border irregular. The upper part of their wings is a purple-black color with a wide, bright yellow border and a row of iridescent blue spots along the inner part of the border. Their wing span is between 2 ¼- 4 inches. The Mourning Cloaks can live up to 10 months as an adult, which is a long life span for a butterfly. The mourning cloak caterpillar is velvety black with raised white spots and rows of red spots and long spines that form through the middle of their back. The Mourning Cloak caterpillar can grow to be as long as two inches. 
The Mourning Cloak is capable of surviving the cold of the winter through "cryo-preservation," a generic term for the various methods used by animals that have not evolved a migratory pattern and must therefore endure temperature extremes. Animals that are around during the winter usually have the most problems with the formation of ice on their bodies and in their body tissue which cause the animal to die. The Mourning Cloak doesn’t have this problem due to the chemicals that the butterfly secretes that act like an anti-freeze which therefore prevents ice formation.
Hey guys! As I’m sure everyone already noticed, I’m going to be talking about butterflies. I don’t know a whole lot about them but I absolutely love them so that’s why I choose to write about them. This is going to be a learning experience for the both of us when it comes to the information that is going to be on these blogs. There will always be a hyperlink on each blog that will go to the site that the information is on and has a lot more to learn about on a specific species of butterfly. Today I will be talking about the Black Swallowtail. The Black Swallowtail is well known for its black, almost dark purple, coloration. It often has yellow markings all along the outer parts of its wings, as well as some blue and red on is bottom wings. The wing span of this butterfly can get up to 4 ½ inches wide. A mature caterpillar can reach up to 2 inches in length and are identified by their black bands and yellow spots. They are normally are smooth and green with the identifying trademarks of a Black Swallowtail. 
The Black Swallowtail is known to mimic another butterfly called the Pipevine Swallowtail, which also has dark wings but they don’t have the yellow or red on the wings. By mimicking this butterfly the Black Swallowtail wards off its predators due to the nasty taste of the butterfly it mimics. As a caterpillar they would feed on carrot, parsley, dill, fennel, and Queen Anne’s lace. The caterpillar is very bad tasting to birds because of the toxins that they absorbed when eating these plants. They use a “Y” or “V” shaped odor dispenser behind their heads to also ward off predators. These caterpillars are also medically harmless to humans or animals.
They are found in the rainforests of Papua New Guinea. They spend all of their adult lives in that canopy of the rainforest. It is rare to see them near the ground of the rainforest. The population of this butterfly used to be in the thousands but because the clearing of rainforests is increasing for human living, farming, and the need for more oil pal, rubber, and cocoa plantations it has declined to only a few left existing. Because of the butterfly’s great size it is sought out by many collectors. The capture and mounting of these butterflies has also affected its numbers. We can only hope that something is put in effect, that works, to help save these amazingly beautiful and rare butterflies. 
