''Prepona laertes'', the shaded-blue leafwing or Laertes prepona, is a

butterfly Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

of the family

Nymphalidae The Nymphalidae are the largest family of butterflies, with more than 6,000 species distributed throughout most of the world. Belonging to the superfamily Papilionoidea, they are usually medium-sized to large butterflies. Most species ha ...

. It is found in large parts of Central and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the opposite wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingsp ...

is about 88 mm.Parque Nacional Sangay (Ecuador)
/ref> It is a very variable species and a great number of subspecies and forms have been described. Most of these are now considered synonyms. The larvae feed on ''

Inga vera ''Inga'' is a genus of small tropical, tough-leaved, nitrogen-fixing treesElkan, Daniel. "Slash-and-burn farming has become a major threat to the world's rainforest" ''The Guardian'' 21 April 2004 and shrubs, subfamily Mimosoideae. ''Inga''s l ...

'', '' Inga ruiziana'' and '' Andira inermis''.

Subspecies

*''Prepona laertes laertes'' (Paraguay) *''Prepona laertes demodice'' (Godard, 824 (French Guiana, Brazil, Surinam, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia) *''Prepona laertes louisa'' Butler, 1870 (Colombia, Venezuela, Trinidad) *''Prepona laertes octavia'' Fruhstorfer, 1905 (Honduras, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Ecuador)

Gallery

Image:Prepona laertes laertes MHNT ventre.jpg, Male, underside Image:Prepona laertes laertes MHNT.jpg, ''Prepona laertes laertes'' male Image:Preponajoiceyi.JPG, ''Prepona laertes demodice'' Image:Prepona laetres octavia.jpg, ''Prepona laertes octavia''

References

Charaxinae Butterflies described in 1811 Lepidoptera of Brazil Nymphalidae of South America Butterflies of Central America Taxa named by Jacob Hübner Lepidoptera of French Guiana Fauna of Suriname Lepidoptera of Colombia Lepidoptera of Peru Lepidoptera of Ecuador Lepidoptera of Bolivia Butterflies of Trinidad and Tobago Lepidoptera of Venezuela Lepidoptera of Mexico {{Charaxinae-stub