LARGER THAN LIFE

Thanks to caretakers in Taiwan’s Orchid Island, we finally know the measurements of this particular butterfly. On average, the wingspan of a fully grown Magellan birdwing butterfly is fifteen centimeters long and ten centimeters wide, as reported online by Digital Taiwan! But see, that’s just an average male -- and we haven’t touched on their bigger counterparts yet.

Now, the females can be visually differentiated from the males because these butterflies are sexually dimorphic -- there are a number of physical differences between the two sexes (and not just the bits needed to breed). Kind of like how peacocks have a different color depending on gender, the Magellan birdwing butterflies’ males and females also differ, albeit in size. The females are actually larger than the males, which means that female Magellan birdwing butterflies can measure up to about twenty to twenty five centimeters wide.