The World of Birdwing Butterflies

SCHOENBERGIA TITHONUS

IUCN conservation status category: INSUFFICIENTLY KNOWN.

A male of Schoenbergia tithonus, collected by Dr. Solomon Müller in Kapaur (= Fak Fak) in the Onin Peninsula remained the only known specimen for half a century. Following the discovery of a female of A. victoriae, the contemporary believed that the two specimens could represent the same species. The first actual female of S. tithonus was described by Oberthür in 1885.

Some field notes from the Arfak Mountains by C. B. Pratt were published by Sir George Kenrick in a paper to the Entomological Society of London in 1910: "The day after we arrived (at the Arfak Mts.) we each took one specimen of the male - one fortunately being perfect. Soon after we noticed a tree overhanging a steep precipice, with a sheer drop of 500 ft. to the river below. Flying round and round this tree were males and females, more of the former than the latter. We offered the natives very good payment if they would go up with a net, but the tree was of a soft kind of wood, and being in such a dangerous position we could not persuade them to do so. We ourselves guarded the ridge every day, but the males never once left the tree, so after some time we had the tree cut down, thinking that the males would disperse and seek other flowering trees, but after the tree had fallen we never saw another male".

S. tithonus can be seen from sea level to around 1,250 m.

The exact distribution of tithonus is poorly known, as is its life history.

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