Morpho aurora

Morpho aurora, the Aurora morpho, is a Neotropical butterfly found in Bolivia and Peru.

Aurora morpho
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Insecta
Order:
Lepidoptera
Family:
Nymphalidae
Genus:
Morpho
Species:
M. aurora
Binomial name
Morpho aurora
(Westwood, 1851)

M. aurora is similar to Morpho portis in the shape of the wings and the arrangement of the black distal spots. Upper surface with light blue, distally darkening gloss. Under surface grey white, with mother-of-pearl gloss, basal area purple. The ocelli show through distinctly above and are yellow in the middle with white crescents and sharply ringed with black. On the forewing four or five, on the hindwing always four eyespots, the apical one sometimes doubled, being accompanied anteriorly by a halved eyespot. The species flies rather high; Garlepp met with it at Cocapata in Bolivia at elevations of about 2600 m.[1]

Etymology

Aurora is the goddess of dawn in Roman mythology.

References
Notes
  1. Fruhstorfer, H., 1913. Family: Morphidae. In A. Seitz (editor), Macrolepidoptera of the World, vol. 5: 333–356. Stuttgart: Alfred Kernen.
Sources
  • Le Moult (E.) & Réal (P.), 1962-1963. Les Morpho d'Amérique du Sud et Centrale, Editions du cabinet entomologique E. Le Moult, Paris.
  • Paul Smart, 1976 The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Butterfly World in Color. London, Salamander: Encyclopedie des papillons. Lausanne, Elsevier Sequoia (French language edition) ISBN 9780948427046 ISBN 0600313816 page 233 fig.7ssp. aureola Fruhst. (Peru), fig. 8 ssp. aureola Fruhst., underside (Peru).


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