Troides criton, the Criton birdwing, is a birdwing butterfly found on the islands of Morotai, Halmahera, Bali, Bacan, Ternate and Obi in Indonesia.
Description
Troides criton is sexually dimorphic.
Male: The ground colour of the forewings is black. A large discal golden area has veins are black veins. The underside is very similar.
Female: In the female some of the veins are bordered by white. There is a chain of internervular black spots in the golden area. The underside is very similar.
In both sexes the abdomen is brown with a yellow underside. The head and thorax are black and the underside of thorax has red hair. Seitz, A., 1912-1927. Die Indo-Australien Tagfalter Grossschmetterlinge Erde 9
Subspecies Troides criton criton Sulawesi, Moluccas, Morotai, Ternate, Tidore, Halmahera, Kasiruta, Sula Islands, Bacan Troides criton critonides (Fruhstorfer, 1903) Obi Islands Not constantly different from criton.Male: forewing beneath often with white vein-stripes (in 4 of our 7 males (Fruhstorfers) the cell-spot of the hindwing mostly less obliquely truncate than in criton. In the female the spot placed before the 1st radial of the hindwing always small, no yellow or cream-coloured discal spot before the subcostal; the black discal spots completely merged together, so that above only quite small yellow submarginal spots are present.
Related species Troides criton is a member of the Troides haliphron species group. The members of this clade are:
Troides haliphron (Boisduval, 1836) Troides darsius (Gray, ) Troides vandepolli (Snellen, 1890) Troides criton (C. & R. Felder, 1860) Troides riedeli (Kirsch, 1885) Troides plato (Wallace, 1865) Troides staudingeri (Röber, 1888)
References
D'Abrera, B. (1975). Birdwing Butterflies of the World. Country Life Books, London.
Felder, C. & R. Felder (1865-1875). Rhopalocera. In Reise der Osterreichischen Fregatte "Novara" um die Erde in den Jahren 1857, 1858, 1859 unter den Befehlen Commodore B. von Wullerstorf-Urbair. Zoologischer Theil. Zweiter Band:Abtheilung. Wien: vi + 548 + pp in 5 parts, 140 pls. Haugum, J. & Low, A.M. (1978-1985). A Monograph of the Birdwing Butterflies. 2 volumes. Scandinavian Press, Klampenborg; 663 pp. Kurt Rumbucher and Oliver Schäffler (2004). Part 19, Papilionidae X. Troides III. in Erich Bauer and Thomas Frankenbach Eds. Butterflies of the World. Keltern: Goecke & Evers
External links
Butterflycorner Images from Naturhistorisches Museum Wien (English/German) Nagypal Halmahera Rain Forests Ecoregion Sulawesi Lowland Rain Forests