Butterfly Records

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Butterfly Records

By Fluttertime

What is the worlds largest butterfly?

The largest butterfly in the world is the Queen Alexandra's Birdwing (Ornithoptera alexandrae). This huge, poisonous butterfly lives in the rain forests of Papua, New Guinea, and is an endangered species with a wing span of 11 inches. Males of the species are much smaller than females. The second-largest butterfly in the world is the Goliath Birdwing and it lives in Indonesian rainforests and has a wingspan up to 11 inches as well.

What is the largest butterfly in the USA?

The largest butterfly that can be found naturally in the United States is the Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) with a wing span of 4-6 inches, and is known as the "Orange Dog" by local citrus growers. Giant, Thoas, and female Tiger Swallowtails are the largest of the North American butterflies.

What are the largest moths in the world?

The Hercules Emperor Moth (Coscinocera hercules) of northern Australia and New Guinea is one of the largest moths in the world with females of the species capable of reaching a wing span of 10.5 inches. Great Owlet Moths (Thysania agripinna) of South America have females with a wingspan that measures up to 12 inches. Owlet Moths, or Noctuids (Noctuidae), are part of a gigantic family of moths with some specimens on record with an amazing 18 inch wing span. The Giant Atlas Moth (Attacus atlas), one of the largest silk moths, can be mistaken for a medium-sized bat when flying. Atlas moths has the largest wing surface area of all moths and the markings on the moth's front wingtips resemble a snake's head and may scare away predators.

The Luna moth (Actius luna) (Lunar Moth) one of the largest moths in North America and is a Giant Silk Moth with fantastically colored fluorescent green wings with brown spots and white "eye" on each wing, and long sw eeping lower wing-tails. Lunar moths have wings that span from 3 to nearly 8 inches across. A close cousin to the Luna Moth is an African species known as a Comet Moth (Agerema mittrei), Madagascan Moon Moth, or a Malagasy Lunar moth from Madagascar that sports huge and hefty 8 inch wings with a 6 inch long trailing tail. Like its American cousin, the African and Madagascan moths are born without a mouth and have just two weeks to find a mate before they literally starves to death. American Luna (or Lunar) Moths have a wing span of 3 to 4 1/4 inches. Male and female Luna Moths are similar in appearance, but the antennae of the males appears slightly more feathery.

What is the smallest butterfly in the world?

The smallest butterfly is the Western Pygmy blue (Brephidium exilis) from Africa, which has a half an inch wingspan.

What is the smallest moth in the world?

Nepticulid moths which have a 0.1 inch wing span. They are the smallest known species of moths and are leaf miners within the pygmy moth family (Nepticulidae). Average moths have a 1 inch wing span.

How high can butterflies fly?

Glider pilots have observed Monarch butterflies during migration at altitudes over 11,000 feet!

What is the most widespread butterfly in the world?

The Painted Lady is the most widely distributed butterfly in the world. It is native to the United States, Mexico, the Caribbean Islands, Venezuela, Europe, Asia, Africa, Madagascar, the Azores, the Canary Islands, the Middle East, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Borneo, Austrailia and Sumatra. The main reason for its large population is the fact that it has over 20 host plants where femals will lay eggs and that its catepillars will eat.

All of the butterflies used in our butterfly frames are inspected by the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and we never use endangered species. Each framed butterfly comes from butterfly farms located around the world mostly from ranching operations in South America, South East Asia, Africa and the Amazon River basin.

These butterfly farms provide the native peoples with an excellent source of income and prevent them from destroying the rainforest to clear cut land for cattle raising and logging.

For more information on how the farms are helping to revitalize rainforest habitat, please click on the
Butterfly Farms menu link.