The Ulysses butterfly is one of Tropical North Queensland’s most distinctive and unique butterfly species. Their scientific name is papilio ulysses

A lot of our visitors come to our sanctuary purely to see the iridescent blue butterfly in flight, and to try and snap a photo.

They are considered to be one of the most elusive butterflies and can be very hard to take photographs of – due to their bright blue colouring, they are easy to spot by their predators, so they fly very quickly and erratically to protect themselves.

The Ulysses butterfly is found in most tropical rainforest areas such as Northern Queensland, Northern islands of Australia and Papua New Guinea and lives below the rainforest canopy.

Did you know?

• Its common name is “Mountain Blue Butterfly” and is a large swallowtail butterfly.
• The Ulysses wing span is between 100 and 130 mm.
• The Ulysses caterpillar is green and white which is the same colour as the plants they feed on. This provides excellent camouflage from predators.