Odd colored O. paradisea arfakensis

[letmarkin]

Anyone ever seen a O. paradisea arfakensis with this type of abnormal coloration ?

Attachments:

[nomihoudai]

looks like grease and water damage to me, the only thing that puzzles me is that the base of the wing where the grease actually should come from looks fine.

[letmarkin]

This specimen was collected in 1995 and I received it papered and it already looked like this. Fortunately I did not pay much for the pair.
I guess I will have to find another male.

Thanks for the info. Perhaps it is water damage.

[nomihoudai]

I have not too much experience with these myself but it looks like water damage that I frequently have on Lycaenidae and it reminds me of water damaged specimen that people showed here. Maybe someone with more experience in water damaging Ornithoptera, lol, can help out to clarify the situation

[Deleted]

99% sure its water damage, very easy to do with ornithoptera, years ago I had an o goliath with the same "colour variation", that particular dealer was not worth pissing on.

[simosg]

Have a look at the thread below. I have not tried it for myself.

www.insectnet.com/cgi/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?az=read_count&om=2004&forum=DCForumID1

Hannes

[krupten]

Dear "letmarkin" The paradisea you have is expupae and - if the collector of the pupae is a novice they sometimes kill the adult too early and do NOT ALLOW THE SPECIMEN TO DRY properly. As it was explained to you there seems to be an area next to the base of the wing that is NORMAL - which of course precludes water discoloration. Most Ornithoptera males regardless if green copper or blue will have a "brownish" tint that will evaporate and produce the normal irridescent green, copper or blue coloration. For example the croesus are "green" when they eclose - and turn copper when dry and older specimens then progress to a red tone. blues - such as urvilleana, caelestis, and miokensis also are GREENISH and then as they dry - take on the blue coloration., (O.p.miokensis is odd in the fact that it is a natural hybrid between bornemanni stock from New Britain and the light blue urvilleana stock from New Ireland and as the pool is mixed the color outcome is a bit of of a lottery. There are hybrids that were produced by Straatman of poseidon and urvilleana (urvidon) and he also did euphorian by urvilleana and the results were light blue male imagines and the preponderance of the female morphology was that of the urvilleana livery - thus indicating that BLUE is dominant to green - which is logicial.) This is also seen in the Graphium where for example sarpedon emerges it is green and only in sunlight will it adopt the blue on the wings. G. macleayanus is an odd olive color when it emerges and in about 2 - 3 hours in the sunlight takes on the rich chrome green we see in netted specimens. Other Graphium for example like antiphates do not have this and are full color without noticeable change once the wings are dried.

What you have is just a case where the specimen was KILLED TOO EARLY and many of the so called "color variations" are just this. NOT all mind you but the vast majority. IF you wish - have a look at D'Abrera's book on Onrithoptera and there is an alexandrae male freshly eclosed and look at the color of the wings - not the typical acidic green or blue but actually it looks "greasy" and that is typical of the species just emerged and its cousin victoriae.

Can it be repaired? NO - sorry - I have bred out thousands of Ornithoptera and once you have dispatched them - what you see is what you get.

Not sure if this explains it fully but if you have further questions - by all means contact me. Cheers Greg

[letmarkin]

Greg thanks for the information. I had tried all the tricks I knew of to restore the wings original coloration ,even an acetone bath for 36 hours, to no avail. I guess I will have to learn to live with it.

Many Thanks Mark