Wallace's Golden Birdwing Butterfly (Ornithoptera croesus)

Wallace's golden birdwing butterfly (Ornithoptera croesus) was collected by Wallace in Bacan Island, Indonesia and named by him in 1859. He writes the following about his capture of this species in his book The Malay Archipelago: “The beauty and brilliancy of this insect are indescribable, and none but a naturalist can understand the intense excitement I experienced when I at length captured it. On taking it out of my net and opening the glorious wings, my heart began to beat violently, the blood rushed to my head, and I felt much more like fainting than I have done when in apprehension of immediate death. I had a headache the rest of the day, so great was the excitement produced by what will appear to most people a very inadequate cause.”