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= Ulysses Butterflies =

Introduction: The Ulysses butterfly is a beautiful, bright blue and black Swallowtail butterfly. It is called the Swallowtail butterfly because of its tail on the bottom of its wings. The Ulysses butterfly is also known as the Blue Mountain and the Blue Emperor butterfly. The Ulysses butterfly is in the classification Lepidoptera with other butterflies and moths. The family is Papilionidae with other swallowtails.

Anatomy: The Ulysses butterfly has a pair antennae used for their sense of smell. Their body parts are the head, abdomen and the thorax. It has compound eyes, which means it has thousands of lenses in each eye. It has no lungs but has little holes on each side of its body to breathe through. It uses its feet for tasting. The Ulysses butterfly is black and blue but when it’s resting it is a brownish colour which makes it look like a dead leaf.



Habitat:

The Ulysses butterfly is found on every continent except Antarctica. It is found in most tropical areas like Northern Queensland and the islands off Northern Australia and Papua New Guinea. They live below the canopy in a rainforest.



Feeding and Predators: The Ulysses butterfly eats nectar from flowers. When they are feeding they also pollinate the flower. Birds, frogs, snakes and flying foxes eat the Ulysses butterfly. Nectar Ulysses Frog Flying Fox Butterfly

Snake Hawk

Reproduction: Male and female butterflies release pheromones into the environment. Male butterflies can detect it from kilometres away, so they can easily find a mate. Males are attracted to bright blue things which they often mistake female butterflies.

Life cycle:

1. The Ulysses butterfly lays its eggs on a Euodia leaf.

2. The egg hatches and turns it into caterpillar.

3. The caterpillar sticks on to a twig and starts a chrysalis.

4. After a while of hanging on the twig the chrysalis will crack and out will come the wonderful Ulysses Butterfly.

Interesting Facts:

The Ulysses butterfly is endangered because people keep on killing them and pinning them in frames and selling them as souvenirs.
 * The Ulysses butterfly has green blood.
 * The Ulysses butterfly is the Symbol for Tropical
 * Queensland.