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Project Noah Nature School
Nivosus
We saw these bluish-white butterflies while trekking somewhere in Quezon, Philippines. There were some 4-5 of them flying around us. Good thing I had my handy iPhone to take a picture of it.
This is amazing!!! What an awesome find! And thank you gatorfellows for posting the article. I have never heard of this phenomenon!
Here is an extensive article about the "why" of the color change;
http://www.monarchwatch.org/read/article...
Could you please add this to rare color morphs mission and monarch migration, this is a Very rare find and certainly special!
It is a monarch, read this, taken from wikipedia "A color variation has been observed in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and the United States as early as the late 19th century. Named nivosus by Lepidopterists, it is grayish white in all areas of the wings that are normally orange. Generally it is only about 1% or less of all monarchs, but has maintained populations as high as 10% on Oahu in Hawaii, possibly due to selective predation"
I looked that up & yes, I suppose it is! Looked the same as the search results~ 😊
Spotted on Aug 18, 2012
Submitted on Aug 18, 2012
