''Morpho aurora'', the Aurora morpho, is a Neotropical butterfly found in

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

and Peru. ''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 Cocapata is a locality in the Cochabamba Department in central Bolivia. It is the seat of the Cocapata Municipality, the third municipal section of the Ayopaya Province Ayopaya is a province in the Cochabamba Department, Bolivia. Its capital i ...

in Bolivia at elevations of about 2600 m.Fruhstorfer, H., 1913. Family: Morphidae. In A. Seitz (editor), ''Macrolepidoptera of the World'', vol. 5: 333–356. Stuttgart: Alfred Kernen.

Etymology

Aurora is the goddess of dawn in Roman mythology.

Subspecies

* ''Morpho aurora aurora'' Westwood, 1851; occurs in

and Peru * ''Morpho aurora aureola''

Fruhstorfer Hans Fruhstorfer (7 March 1866, in Passau, Germany – 9 April 1922, in Munich) was a German explorer, insect trader and entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera. He collected and described new species of exotic butterflies, especially in Ada ...

, 1913; occurs in Peru

References

;Notes ;Sources * Le Moult (E.) & Réal (P.), 1962-1963. ''Les Morpho d'Amérique . *Paul Smart, 1976 ''The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Butterfly World in Color''. London, Salamander: ''Encyclopedie des papillons''. Lausanne, Elsevier Sequoia (French language edition) page 233 fig.7ssp. ''aureola'' Fruhst. (Peru), fig. 8 ssp. ''aureola'' Fruhst., underside (Peru).

External links

Butterflies of America
Photographs of

type specimens In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes t ...

"''Morpho'' Fabricius, 1807"
at Markku Savela's ''Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms''

Photograph of voucher.
Fiebig
Photographs Morpho Butterflies described in 1851 Nymphalidae of South America Taxa named by John O. Westwood {{Morphinae-stub