Sri Lanka Bird Wing:

National Butterfly

Shirley WIJESINGHE

Sri Lanka's largest attractive butterfly - the "Sri Lanka Bird Wing" (Troides darsius) which is endemic to Sri Lanka has been declared as the National Butterfly under the recommendations of the Butterfly Expert Group established under the Environment and Natural Resources Ministry through its Butterfly Conservation Action Plan.

The special large species of butterfly had been categorized as flagship species due to its attractive colour pattern and also contains no pest behaviour or vector agent of disease and it has no negative cultural or spiritual beliefs.