November 28, 2012
Today’s Cool Photo of the Week is of hundreds of Blue Morpho butterflies gathered on a tree trunk in the rainforest. The blue morpho (Morpho peleides) is one of the largest butterflies in the world, with a wingspan from 5 to 8 inches (12 to 20 centimeters). If you spread your fingers as wide apart as you can, that’s roughly the size of a morpho butterfly!
The blue morpho lives in the rainforests of Latin America, from Mexico to Colombia. They are only bright blue on top of their wings. The bottom side is a dull brown with many eyespots, so that when birds and larger insect predators are looking up from the ground, the morpho is camouflaged.
Airplane pilots flying over the rainforest have reported seeing huge groups of blue morphos sunning themselves on top of the forest canopy. What a beautiful sight that would be!
There is a photo of a Blue Morpho in my book BUTTERFLIES, where you can learn lots more about these beautiful creatures that smell with their antennae and taste with their feet. Or, you can click here for a video preview of the book.
Posted by: Seymour Simon
