Morpho menelaus

Menelaus blue morpho
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Nymphalidae
Genus: Morpho
Species: M. menelaus
Binomial name
Morpho menelaus
(Linnaeus, 1758)

Morpho menelaus, the Menelaus blue morpho, is an iridescent tropical butterfly of Central and South America. It has a wing span of 15 cm (5.9 in). The adult drinks juice from rotten fruit with its long proboscis, which is like a sucking tube. The adult males have brighter colours than the females.

Morpho menelaus is a very large butterfly, with a wingspan of approximately 138 mm.The forewing is concave at the outer edge. The upperside of wings are metallic blue.The underside is brown with a line of large ocelli at the base of the postdiscal area.

Range

Morpho butterflies are Neotropical butterflies found mostly in Central America as well as Mexico and South America including Brazil, Costa Rica and Venezuela.

Two views (dorsal and ventral) of the same specimen

Subspecies

The subspecies are:

Biology

The nocturnal larvae are red-brown in colour with bright patches of lime-green or yellow. They are known to feed on Erythroxylum pulchrum and Machaerium, and are also highly cannibalistic. The Morpho butterfly drinks its food rather than eat it. It uses its proboscis (long, protruding mouth part) to drink sap and fruit juices. Morpho butterflies taste with sensors on their legs and taste-smell the air with their antennae. They butterflies feed on the juices of fermenting fruit with which they may also be lured. The inebriated butterflies wobble in flight and are easy to catch. Morphos will also feed on the bodily fluids of dead animals and on fungi. Therefore, Morpho butterflies may be important in dispersing fungal spores. The adults dwell in the forest canopy layer and rarely come near the understorey and forest floor layers; however, they have sometimes been observed flying near the ground in clearings.

Upper-side (female)

Similar species

It is similar in range and colouration to the Peleides Blue Morpho (Morpho peleides).

Etymology

Caterpillar

Morpho menelaus was named in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus (as Papilio menelaus) to honour the Greek mythological figure Menelaus, a king of Ancient Sparta.

References

    This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 12/2/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.