There are at least 29 species of Morpho, a genus of brilliant blue butterflies widespread across (and unique to) Latin America. The male Morpho didius (considered by some to be a subspecies of Morpho menelaus) has large wings, the topside of which are mostly the metallic, iridescent blue colour for which morphos are famous. Morphos typically have very large wings for their body size, and fly with a characteristic slow, jerking motion. Morpho wing undersides are typically a mottled brown and/or greyish colour with several prominent eye-spots, and it’s believed that the alternating of the wings’ topsides and undersides when flapped makes a morpho in flight a difficult target for predators to place visually. A rainforest inhabitant, it’s found across much of South America and is sexually dimorphic - the females have broader dark margins splotched with white around the conspicuously smaller patches of blue. As with many butterflies, adult males are far more often encountered than females. |
