Rajah Brooke’s Birdwing Butterfly (Trogonoptera brookiana)

Alfred Russel Wallace named this butterfly in 1855, during the years in the Malay Archipelago that would lead him to natural selection, and he named it for James Brooke, the Rajah of Sarawak. It is now Malaysia's national insect.

The males are the ones people see. They gather in numbers at hot springs, riverbanks and mud flats to drink mineral-rich water - a behaviour called puddling, thought to supply salts needed for reproduction - and a group of them at close range is one of the more memorable sights in Southeast Asian forest. Females stay high in the canopy and are encountered far less often.

The caterpillars feed on Aristolochia vines, which are toxic, so the adults carry that protection with them. The flight is strong and looping, powerful rather than delicate, and the species is confined to Borneo, Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula.

A vector illustration of the Rajah Brooke's Birdwing in dorsal view, drawn for the Bugs series of insect art prints.

Bugs is a collection of natural history illustration prints drawn from the insect world - beetles, flies, bugs, butterflies, and moths selected for the strangeness, beauty, and variety of their forms.

Each illustration is adapted from Simon Tyler's book Bugs, published by Pavilion in 2017 and subsequently published in French and Chinese. The series draws on the tradition of scientific natural history illustration - precise, considered, and attentive to the details that make each species distinctive.

Insects account for the majority of all known animal species on Earth. This collection is a small survey of what that diversity looks like.

All prints are produced to order on 250gsm archival matte paper using pigment-based inks, chosen for colour accuracy and long-term stability.

Each print is rolled in acid-free tissue and shipped in a rigid cardboard tube, sealed for moisture protection, ready for framing on arrival.

Large · 70 × 50 cm · 28 × 20 in

XLarge · 100 × 70 cm · 40 × 28 in

UK: Free · 3-5 working days

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Australia: $14.00 AUD · 5-10 working days

Rest of World: £14.95 · 7-14 working days

All prints are produced to order and dispatched within 1-3 working days. Orders placed before 5pm GMT ship the same day. You'll receive tracking information by email once dispatched.

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Returns accepted within 30 days. Email returns@axisophy.com with your order number and we'll provide return instructions.

Return postage is the customer's responsibility except where the print arrives damaged or there's been an error - in which case we'll arrange a replacement or refund immediately, no return needed.

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