''Morpho sulkowskyi'', or Sulkowsky's 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 bi ...
butterfly. It is found in
Colombia,
Ecuador
Ecuador ( ; ; Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar language, Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechuan ...
and
Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal
, national_motto = "Fi ...
.
Habitat
''Morpho sulkowskyi'' is a
Tropical Andes
The Tropical Andes is northern of the three climate-delineated parts of the Andes, the others being the Dry Andes and the Wet Andes. The Tropical Andes' area spans .
Geography and ecology
file:Andes_clima.png, 200px, Map of the climatic regions ...
cloud forest
A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud ...
specialist (above 800 to 1,500 meters as high as 3500 meters). ''Morpho sulkowskyi'' and ''
Morpho lympharis'' are the sole ''Morphos'' occupying this habitat.
Taxonomy
''Morpho sulkowskyi'' and ''Morpho lympharis'' may be
conspecific
Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species.
Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organ ...
. There are several
subspecies and many forms have been described.
Subspecies
*''Morpho sulkowskyi sulkowskyi''
V. Kollar, 1850
*''Morpho sulkowskyi hoppiana''
F.W. Niepelt, 1923
*''Morpho sulkowskyi selenaris''
E. Le Moult & P. Réal, 1962
*''Morpho sulkowskyi sirene''
F.W. Niepelt, 1911
Similar species
It is very similar to, and maybe
conspecific
Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species.
Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organ ...
with ''
Morpho lympharis''.
Colors

The color of a ''Morpho sulkowskyi'' is white with a holographic shine to them.
Both the presence of fluorescent pigments in their wings and the nanostructure of their wings are responsible for the iridescent fluorescence of ''M. sulkowskyi''. The major blue fluorescent pigment contributing to the fluorescence of ''M. sulkowskyi'' was found to be L-''erythro'' biopterin, along with minor components of pterin and isoxanthopterin.
References
Further reading
*
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 234 fig.1 (Brazil) and page 235 fig. 9 as ''ockendeni'' (Peru).
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.
* Ty ...
and other specimens.
FiebigPhotographs.
*Butterfly discoverer: prince
Maksymilian Sułkowski
Morpho
{{Morphinae-stub