''Morpho telemachus'' 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. Morpho telemachus telemachus MHNT Femelle dos

Description

''Morpho telemachus'' is a large butterfly. The upperside of the forewings is a silver grey and blue green with a very wide black-brown outer edge. This is also on the posterior wings and can even cover almost all of the hindwings and forewings. There is a black band on half of the costal edge from the base. The underside is copper brown with a line of black white and orange

ocelli A simple eye (sometimes called a pigment pit) refers to a form of eye or an optical arrangement composed of a single lens and without an elaborate retina such as occurs in most vertebrates. In this sense "simple eye" is distinct from a multi-le ...

black white and orange, in an arc on both the hindwings and forewings.

Subspecies

*''M. t. telemachus'' Suriname, Guyana, French Guiana, Venezuela *''M. t. iphiclus'' C. & R. Felder, 1862 Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil (Amazonas, Pará) *''M. t. lilianae'' Le Moult, 1927 Venezuela *''M. t.'' ssp. Ebert, MS Brazil (Pernambuco)

Behaviour

In 1913,

Hans 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 A ...

wrote: "According to Michael ''perseus'' ynonym for ''telemachus''is never seen fluttering round flowers, nor do the butterflies seem to require food or drink. They prefer rather to soar through the spaces of the illimitable forests like ''Morpho hecaba'' or to float along in unrestricted flight over the tops of the trees in a deep valley. According to Hahnel ''perseus'' is one of the highest-flying Morphids and on account of its brown under surface, which looks very dark against the light sky, it gives the impression, when flying at a height of 8-10 m, of a black coloured species. Hahnel says that the butterflies, which in spite of their lively, jerky movement through the air scarcely flap the wings appreciably, present a charming spectacle, particularly when half a dozen or more meet and engage in a sham fight. Almost the whole morning such scenes are repeated, for only towards midday, after they have been flying over their wide domain for 2 or 3 hours, do their pinions become weary and they settle again in the shade of the branches on some large leaf, the back turned towards the dark and the eyes towards the open. One rarely finds even a single insect flying in the afternoon and then probably only when unfavourable weather has hindered its doing so in the morning. The butterflies occasionally dart down on to yellow ''Papilio'' females drinking on the ground, undoubtedly taking them for their own females which are also frequently yellow, and Dr. Hahnel took advantage of this by fastening pieces of yellow paper in his net, which actually deceived the ''perseus'' males."Fruhstorfer, H. 1913. Family: Morphidae. In A. Seitz (editor), ''Macrolepidoptera of the World'', vol. 5: 333–356. Stuttgart: Alfred Kernen.

Etymology

The species is named in the

classical tradition The Western classical tradition is the reception of classical Greco-Roman antiquity by later cultures, especially the post-classical West, involving texts, imagery, objects, ideas, institutions, monuments, architecture, cultural artifacts, ri ...

for

Telemachus Telemachus ( ; grc, Τηλέμαχος, Tēlemakhos, lit=far-fighter), in Greek mythology, is the son of Odysseus and Penelope, who is a central character in Homer's ''Odyssey''. When Telemachus reached manhood, he visited Pylos and Sparta in ...

, a figure in Greek mythology, the son of Odysseus and Penelope, and a central character in Homer's ''

Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major Ancient Greek literature, ancient Greek Epic poetry, epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by moder ...

''.

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 231 fig.5 f. ''metellus'' Cr., underside(Brazil)

External links

"''Morpho'' Fabricius, 1807"
at Markku Savela's ''Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms'' {{Taxonbar, from=Q3324342 Morpho Fauna of Brazil Nymphalidae of South America Butterflies described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus