Insects · Lepidoptera · Papilionidae

Blue Emperor

Papilio ulysses

Not Evaluated

It has not yet been assessed against the IUCN criteria. See full glossary

The blue emperor, also known as the Ulysses butterfly or the blue mountain butterfly, is a ditrysian lepidopteran of the family Papilionidae native to north-western Australia, New Guinea, the Moluccas and nearby islands. This butterfly is the tourism emblem of Queensland.

Size

up to 14 cm

Diet

Herbivore

Feeds mainly on plants.

Activity

Diurnal

Active mainly during the day.

Social structure

Solitary

Lives and hunts alone, joining others only to breed.

Sighting difficulty

Unknown

RainforestHerbivore Diurnal Solitary Insect Rainforest

4countries 12parks5same family

Fun facts

GeneralIts deep blue shows from 30 m away; it is a tourist emblem of Queensland.
The electric blue is not a pigment: it is produced by the microstructure of the scales, a structural colour. At rest, with its wings closed, it shows only the dull brown of the underside and vanishes into the landscape.
Males are territorial and are drawn to blue: they fly at blue objects, including tourists' T-shirts and caps, mistaking them for rivals or females.
The female is told apart by blue lunules on the trailing edge of the hindwings, where the male has only black.
The caterpillar has an osmeterium, a retractable orange organ behind the head that it everts to release a repellent smell.
Systematic replanting of Melicope elleryana in Australia helped its populations recover; it is protected in Queensland, where it is used as a tourism emblem.