Catalogue number: Drawer 1 Wallace's specimens of birdwing
butterflies (Papilionidae) from Asia and Australasia. This
drawer was arranged by Wallace and contains seven birdwing
butterflies. The specimen on the middle left of the drawer is a
male of the magnificent golden birdwing butterfly. Of the 130
butterfly species and subspecies that Wallace named from
Southeast Asia, this is probably the most famous. Wallace named
it Ornithoptera croesus (Crösus was a mythological king famed
for his wealth). Wallace caught the first male specimen in 1859
while on the Indonesian island of Batchian (Bacan). In his book
The Malay Archipelago (1869), he gave an account of its capture,
which has since become legendary: '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