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Project Noah Nature School
Meridaria hightoni
This little guy has a wingspan around 3.5cm; underside of the wings is dull brown with white stripes, with a bright orange area with eye spots on the tail. This seems to be a defense mechanism, leading predators to the butterfly's tail instead of the head. The upper side of the wings is iridescent blue, as can be seen through a small tear in his wing just above the orange patch.
Scrubby area of the southern Colombian Andes at about 1600m above sea level. I took these pictures within the archeological park of "Tierradentro".
Spotted on Dec 31, 2015
Submitted on Oct 1, 2016
2 Comments
Thanks bayucca :-)
Wonderful one!