O. meridionalis was first collected by Albert Stewart Meek near Samarai, Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea.

O. meridionalis has also recently been found in close promimity to its sister species, Ornithoptera paradisea, near Timika in Irian Jaya (Gotts, 2003).

Males of O. meridionalis are remarkable in that they have an extremely small amount of wing area relative to its rather bulky body.

In particular, the hindwings are very reduced and tetragonal in shape, tapering into a single pair of filamentous tails that are easily broken.

On the underside the forewing has a broad black band, beginning at the costal margin before the middle of the cell, running to upper angle of cell and thence to the disc, being distally limited by veins R1 and R3; the yellowish green scaling between these veins reduced to two small submarginal spots; the yellowish streaks between the subcostal also reduced, the apex of the wing being black, with an ill-defined green streak of dispersed scales between SC3 and SC4 and a few more green scales behind SC4.

"The hind wing of Meridionalis is more reduced in size than that of Paradiseus, narrower, the distal margin is gently concave, the tail is shorter, not gradually narrowing to the tip, but dilated before the apex, the anal angle is not produced; the fringe of hairs upon the abdominal fold is much longer and not so dense.

The black distal border of Paradiseus is in Meridionalis indicated only at the extreme edge of the wing; veins all yellowish-green, a narrow outer border to wing and a broader streak from near base to tail in front of submedian fold also yellowish-green; abdominal area up to submedian fold black, with a yellowish-green streak at basal edge, and another, more distal, streak of dispersed scales gradually disappearing distally; the golden yellow area divided by the green veins; cell all golden yellow.

There are three discal patches.The light area of the hind wing is much extended, the apex of the cell bearing a large white patch which is obliquely cut off.

The portion of the light area outside the diseal black spots is brighter yellow than in Paradiseus, and so is the upperside of the abdomen."

1 am indebted to Mr. Rothschild for the privilege of publishing the Figures of this very remarkable aud beautiful species, and also for the above extract from his descriptions of both sexes.