''Morpho cypris'', the Cypris morpho, is a

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 biogeogra ...

butterfly. It is found in

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago, officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean, comprising the main islands of Trinidad and Tobago, along with several List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, smaller i ...

and

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

. Several

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

and many forms have been described.

Description

''Morpho cypris'' replaces '' M. rhetenor'' in Colombia and Central America and one might strictly speaking unite it with the latter as a geographical branch unless the anatomy shows essential differences, ''M. cypris'' is here, however, kept separate on account of the rounded shape of the forewing and the somewhat more vertically placed white median band of the upper surface, ''M. cypris'' and '' M. helena'' outshine even the other Morphids in their incomparable gloss and ''M. cypris'' in particular is a true gem, unequalled in its brilliance throughout the whole of nature ( Schatz). According to the fall of the light the blue of this incomparable insect shows a more violet or more greenish gloss and the delicate white band a yellowish tone or more of a tinge of rose colour. The blue is of such ethereal purity and such intensive lustre that all the other colours appear faded or dull in comparison. Only the Malayo-Australian '' Ornithoptera'' can outrival the Morphids, adding as they do to the brilliance of their golden green colouring the further charm of a quite distinguished form and wing contour. The scaling itself, as in ''M. rhetenor'', remains fixed, but the interference scales are wanting in the normal females so that these are of the primitive yellowish ochreous ( brassolid) ground colour common to all the species of the ''M. adonis'' group.Fruhstorfer, H., 1913. Family: Morphidae. In A. Seitz (editor),''Macrolepidoptera of the world'', vol. 5: 333–356. Stuttgart: Alfred Kernen.

Etymology

Cypris is another name for Aphrodite, a beautiful Greek goddess.

References

* 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) page 232 fig.2 (Colombia).

External links

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

Images of

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * ...

and other specimens.
Fiebig
Photographs, including microphotography of the scales. cypris Nymphalidae of South America Butterflies described in 1851 Taxa named by John O. Westwood {{Morphinae-stub

Description

Etymology

References

Further reading

External links