Blue Morpho Butterflies

At The Butterfly House we have two types of morpho butterflies. The first is the Common Blue Morpho. It has a large expanse of blue on its wings with a black trim around the edges. This butterfly is native to Costa Rica where we purchase it from the El Bosque Nuevo butterfly farm.

This farm gives all of its profit to buying and preserving the rain forest. We are very proud to be part of this contribution to conservation efforts.

The second type of morpho found at The Butterfly House is the Achilles Morpho. This butterfly comes from Suriname on the northern coast of South America.

When the Morpho butterfly closes its wings you will see that they have eye spots on their back side. These eyespots serve to discourage predators from attacking. The contrast between the bright inside color and the dull back side may also surprise the predators and allow the butterflies to escape.

There is no evidence that the Morpho butterfly is distasteful and several bird species have been seen eating them.

This photo shows two Morphos on a leaf. You can get a glimpse of their blue color and see their dark side with their wings closed.

In their native land the Morphos live at ground level in the forest. Since the rainforest blocks most light to the ground there is no flower growth. Because of this lack of flowers the butterflies live on fallen fruit and tree sap. They sip this nourishment through their proboscis, which sometimes looks like a 7th leg.

In the butterfly house the morphos can be seen feeding on trays of cantaloupe, bananas and other fruit.

Here are a few interesting facts on the word "morpho".
>Morpho is from the Greek word for shape
>In mythology, Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty, was sometimes given the name Morpho
>"Aphrodite Morpho" means "The Fair-Shaped"

information for this lens was put together from a seminar at The Butterfly House