Troides plato

Troides plato, the silver birdwing, is a birdwing butterfly endemic to Timor. Troides plato is a butterfly with a large wingspan and scalloped hindwings. It exhibits sexual dimorphism.

The males have black forewings with veins discreetly highlighted in white on the upper side, more broadly on the underside, and yellow hindwings veined and broadly edged in black.

The females have black forewings with veins largely outlined in white, except in the basal part, even more so on the reverse and the hindwings are yellow veined and broadly bordered in black, the border doubled by a submarginal line of large confluent black dots.

Described forms are nychonia Jordan, 1908 (male), chitonia Jordan, 1908 (male), and delormei Le Moult, 1931 (female).

Previously considered to be a subspecies of haliphron, plato was raised to a full species by Haugum and Low on the basis of differences in the genitalia.

Australasian realm.

Troides plato is a member of the Troides haliphron species group. The members of this clade are:

• Troides haliphron (Boisduval, 1836)
• Troides darsius (Gray, [1853])
• Troides vandepolli (Snellen, 1890)
• Troides criton (C. & R. Felder, 1860)
• Troides riedeli (Kirsch, 1885)
• Troides plato (Wallace, 1865)
• Troides staudingeri (Röber, 1888)

• Collins, N. Mark; Morris, Michael G. (1985). Threatened Swallowtail Butterflies of the World: The IUCN Red Data Book. Gland & Cambridge: IUCN. ISBN 978-2-88032-603-6 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
• Haugum, J. & Low, A.M. 1978–1985. A Monograph of the Birdwing Butterflies. 2 volumes. Scandinavian Press, Klampenborg; 663 pp.
• Kurt Rumbucher and Oliver Schäffler, 2004 Part 19, Papilionidae X. Troides III. in Erich Bauer and Thomas Frankenbach Eds. Butterflies of the World. Keltern: Goecke & Evers ISBN 978-3-937783-02-4

• Troides plato at Nagypal
• Timor and Wetar Deciduous Forests