The Queen Alexandra Birdwing Butterfly Coin Of Papua New Guinea

PCGS - It is 1906, and Albert Stewart Meek, an English bird and insect collector hired by Walter Rothschild, is in the jungles of Papua New Guinea looking for specimens. With the help of natives, they search for specimens using nets made by forked sticks and spun spiderwebs from the jungle. Looking up, he spots a large butterfly. The flying insect out of reach, Meek raises a small shotgun, takes aim, and fires, successfully taking down the specimen. Exported to London with other specimens he had collected for Rothschild's natural history collection, it was soon discovered this was the largest butterfly on Earth. In 1907 with the specimen now in London, Rothschild would name it in honor of Alexandra of Denmark, the wife of King Edward VII, and Queen consort of the United Kingdom.


Papua New Guinea 1978-FM 100K - Queen Alexandra Birdwing Butterfly - PCGS PR70DCAM

Ornithoptera alexandrae, or the Queen Alexandra's birdwing butterfly, is now known as the largest species of butterfly in the world and soon became the prize for lepidopterology and collectors of butterflies across the world. With female butterflies measuring 25 centimeters or 9.8 inches across, these majestic butterflies now had man as a threat as well as the spiders and birds with which it usually contend . In 1951, the eruption of Mount Lamington destroyed a large area of the species' former habitat, making the Queen Alexandra's birdwing butterfly incredibly rare. Now restricted to the forests of the Oro Province in eastern Papua New Guinea, the species is mostly threatened by both poaching and loss of habitat.

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