The Bleeding Heart (Homalanthus novoguineensis) is the preferred food plant of the caterpillar (above), which attains a length of 12 cm and produces Australia’s largest moth: The Hercules (Coscinocera hercules).
The female moth has a slightly paler and larger wing area than the male (below), whose wingspan reaches up to 27 cms.
The female Cairns Birdwing (Ornithoptera euphorion) (below) is Australia’s largest endemic butterfly species, reaching a wingspan of up to 16 cm. Males are usually a few centimeters smaller.
The caterpillar of this species (below) prefers to feed upon the native rainforest vine Dutchman’s Pipe (Aristolochia tagala).
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.
i have tried many times to take photos like that on my bush walks but never succeeded. Wonderful stuff.
A breath of fresh air, Neil. No politics, dogma, or dodgy statistics in sight. My idea of science. As you are probably aware, there is some wonderful work on self-organized pattern formation in nature, such as lepidopteran wings.
Ref: Camazine et al. (2001) Self-Organization in Biological Systems. Princeton University Press.