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The Paper Kite, Rice Paper, or Large Tree Nymp butterfly (Idea leuconoe) is known especially for its presence in butterfly greenhouses and live butterfly expositions. The Paper Kite is of Southeast Asian origin.

The Paper Kite Butterfly only has two rather common colors, black and white, but is still an eye catching beauty. The way the light shines through the wings is just amazing, and if there are other colors around it looks a bit like stained glass. These beauties come from Malaysia and the Philippines and Southeast Asia in General. Their official name is Idea leuconoe and they are also known as white tree nymph, or rice paper. Some lepidopterists call this butterfly the Large Tree Nymph, to make the distinction from a similar colored smaller butterfly, the Ideopsis juventa or small wood nymph. Both of those butterflies are part of the brush footed butterflies, or family Nymphalidae.

Your best bet to see one of these outside of their natural habitat will be in a butterfly house or conservatory. Keep an eye out for butterfly exhibits that may come to your local area. I have always thought of butterflies as "flying flowers" for obvious reasons. I took the picture of the Paper Kite above and just loved the tropical pink flower behind it, and felt lucky that he stopped flying long enough for me to get this picture.