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''Morpho hecuba'', the sunset morpho, is a
The sunset morpho is only found in the northern
"We are indebted to Dr. Hahnel for the most detailed information of its habits of flight. Hahnel calls it the king of the forest, and says that it traverses a wider area than any other butterfly, travelling perhaps 30 km. or more in two or three hours, continuous flight in quest of its mate, which it follows persistently for whole days, quite alone, over woods and water-courses. In the distance the flight of ''Morpho hecuba'' looks quiet and slow, but nevertheless it moves quickly enough to evade the collector and newly emerged insects in particular adopt an impetuous pace during their first hours of flight. Sometimes it happens that one of these apparently quietly hovering forms suddenly darts head downwards, and in this event it seems only to rise again with difficulty. They are driven to these violent erratic movements by dragon-flies, which lie in wait for them especially in marshy places and molest them from the tips of dry twigs, apparently more out of wantonness than from a desire to catch them."
NSG Voucher specimen. Photograph of underside.
Images of type and other specimens. Morpho Nymphalidae of South America Butterflies described in 1771 Fauna of Brazil Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{Morphinae-stub
Neotropical
The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone.
Definition
In bioge ...
butterfly
Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...
and the largest species in the genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...
''Morpho
The morpho butterflies comprise many species of Neotropical butterfly under the genus ''Morpho''. This genus includes more than 29 accepted species and 147 accepted subspecies, found mostly in South America, Mexico, and Central America. ''Morph ...
''. Its wingspan
The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...
can reach , but is usually from . "''M. hecuba'' is the largest known Morpho and one may also call it the most interesting, on account of its habits, its susceptibility to climatic influences and its tendency to develop polychromatic forms in both sexes."Fruhstorfer, H., 1913. Family: Morphidae. In A. Seitz (editor),''Macrolepidoptera of the world'',vol. 5: 333–356. Stuttgart: Alfred Kernen.
Geographic range
The sunset morpho is only found in the northern Amazon basin
The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries of Bolivi ...
and the Guianas
The Guianas, sometimes called by the Spanish loan-word ''Guayanas'' (''Las Guayanas''), is a region in north-eastern South America which includes the following three territories:
* French Guiana, an overseas department and region of France
* ...
.
Taxonomy
''M. hecuba'' has severalsubspecies
In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...
and has sometimes also included '' M. cisseis'' as a subspecies.
Behaviour
"We are indebted to Dr. Hahnel for the most detailed information of its habits of flight. Hahnel calls it the king of the forest, and says that it traverses a wider area than any other butterfly, travelling perhaps 30 km. or more in two or three hours, continuous flight in quest of its mate, which it follows persistently for whole days, quite alone, over woods and water-courses. In the distance the flight of ''Morpho hecuba'' looks quiet and slow, but nevertheless it moves quickly enough to evade the collector and newly emerged insects in particular adopt an impetuous pace during their first hours of flight. Sometimes it happens that one of these apparently quietly hovering forms suddenly darts head downwards, and in this event it seems only to rise again with difficulty. They are driven to these violent erratic movements by dragon-flies, which lie in wait for them especially in marshy places and molest them from the tips of dry twigs, apparently more out of wantonness than from a desire to catch them."
References
*Paul Smart, 1976 ''The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Butterfly World in Color''. London, Salamander:''Encyclopedie des papillons''. Lausanne, Elsevier Sequoia (French language edition) page 230 fig.1 ssp. ''obidona'' Fruhst. fig 6 underside (Brazil)External links
NSG Voucher specimen. Photograph of underside.
Images of type and other specimens. Morpho Nymphalidae of South America Butterflies described in 1771 Fauna of Brazil Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{Morphinae-stub