''Morpho laertes'' (formerly ''Morpho epistrophus''), the white morpho or epistrophus white 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 found in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...

, and

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. The white morpho is native to the Atlantic Forest, where they are distributed throughout a landscape of multiple species.

Description

225px, Plate from Seitz showing undersides In 1913, Hans Fruhstorfer wrote in ''Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde'':

Taxonomy

When first described in 1782 ''laertes'' was placed in the genus ''Papilio''. The specimen was from Brasília. It is a valid name in The Global Lepidoptera Names Index. Currently it is placed in the subgenus ''Pessonia'' (Le Moult & Réal 1962) of genus ''Morpho'', along with the closely related species ''

Morpho catenarius ''Morpho catenarius'' is a Neotropical butterfly belonging to the subfamily Morphinae of the family Nymphalidae. It is considered, by some authors, to be a subspecies of ''Morpho epistrophus''. Description ''Morpho catenarius'' has a wingspan of ...

'' (Perry, 1811), '' Morpho luna'' (Butler), '' Morpho polyphemus'' (Dixey), and '' Morpho titei'' (Drury, 1770). It is now considered a junior synonym of ''Morpho laertes''.

Etymology

The name comes from Laërtes, a figure in Greek mythology. Epistrophus is a character in the ''

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...

''.

Subspecies

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 ...

in alphabetical order: *''Morpho epistrophus argentinus'' H. Fruhstorfer, 1907 *''Morpho epistrophus catenaria''

Perry Perry or pear cider is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented pears, traditionally in England (particularly Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire), parts of South Wales, France (especially Normandy and Anjou), Canada, Austral ...

, 1811 *''Morpho epistrophus epistrophus'' ( J.C. Fabricius, 1796) = ''Morpho laertes''

Drury Drury may refer to: Places * Drury, New Zealand, a town * Drury, a village near Buckley, Flintshire, Wales * Drury, Kansas, United States, an unincorporated community * Drury, a village in Florida, Massachusetts, United States * Drury, Missouri, ...

1782 *''Morpho epistrophus titei'' E. Le Moult & P. Réal, 1962

References

Bibliography

*Blandin, P. 2007. ''The genus Morpho, Lepidoptera Nymphalidae''. Part 3. The Subgenera Pessonia, Grasseia and Morpho and Addenda to Parts 1 & 2. Hillside Books, Canterbury * Le Moult (E.) & Réal (P.) (1962–1963). "Les Morpho d'Amérique du Sud et Centrale." ''Editions du cabinet entomologique.'' E. Le Moult, Paris.

External links

Osaka University
Images of ''M. laertes''
"''Morpho'' Fabricius, 1807"
at Markku Savela's ''Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms'' with taxonomy and subspecies

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.

laertes Laertes may refer to: * Laertes (father of Odysseus), Ionian king and the father of Odysseus in Greek mythology * Laertes (''Hamlet''), son of Polonius and brother of Ophelia in Shakespeare's play ''Hamlet'' * Laertes (Cilicia), an ancient town ...

Butterflies described in 1782 Nymphalidae of South America Lepidoptera of Brazil Taxa named by Dru Drury {{Morphinae-stub