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Morpho peleides
Spotted at the Butterfly Pavilion, Denver Colorado. An iridescent tropical butterfly found in Mexico, Central America, northern South America, Paraguay, and Trinidad. Some authorities believe that peleides is a subspecies of Morpho helenor. The brilliant blue color in the butterfly's wings is caused by the diffraction of the light from millions of tiny scales on its wings. It uses this to frighten away predators, by flashing its wings rapidly. The wingspan of the Blue Morpho butterfly ranges from 7.5–20 cm (3.0–7.9 in).
Morpho peleides butterflies live in the rainforests of South America, and can be found in Mexico and Central America. The entire Blue Morpho butterfly lifecycle, from egg to adult is only 115 days. The larvae of Morpho peleides butterflies are occasional cannibals.
Morpho peleides drinks the juices from rotting fruits for food. Its favourites in captivity are mango, kiwi, and lychee. The caterpillar Blue Morpho butterfly is red-brown with patches of bright green. The Morpho peleides butterflies stick together in groups to deter their predators, a form of mobbing behavior
Spotted on Apr 7, 2009
Submitted on Nov 13, 2012
25 Comments (1–25)
Thank you for the comment Jemma!
wow!!
Thank you for the commentKrantiAzad!
Thank you for the comment MayraSpringman!
nice !
Wonderful!
Thank you for the comment YukoChartraw!
Stunning!
Thank you for the comment CarolSnowMilne!
Thank you for the comment Gerardo Aizpuru!
Amazing and colorful butterfly! Congratulations on getting both views.
Wow extraordinary :)
Thank you for the comment NuwanChathuranga, it is a beautiful species!
Thank you for the comment Juan Mantilla - RJ Reichenbach, looks like I lucked out!
Thank you for the comment Adarsha B S, yes indeed a beautiful species!
Wat amazing color combination it has na Nuwan?? specially 2nd pic is so so beautiful!
Beautiful... Thanks for sharing.
loved it!
Ive seen these in the wild they are amazing creatures, nice photos. It is difficult to take a photo of these butterflies with its wings open like picture number 2.
What a beauty! Cant take eyes off it!
Thank you for the comment Seema, it could be that they are not the same butterfly.
Oh, that makes cense, I did not see that in your Description.
Very beautiful.
the two sides are strikingly diff..
Spotted at the Butterfly Pavilion, Denver Colorado.
Love it, great pictures.
But wait!! They do not have this Morphos in Colorado?! Where did you Photograph them?
I see them every day here in Costa Rica but they are imposible to photograph!!
You are so lucky!!