''Morpho thamyris'', the Thamyris 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

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

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 ...

( Santa Catarina,

Mato Grosso Mato Grosso ( – ) is one of the states of Brazil, the List of Brazilian states by area, third largest by area, located in the Central-West Region, Brazil, Central-West region. The state has 1.66% of the Brazilian population and is responsible ...

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, ; ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative units of Brazil#List, fifth-most populous state and the List of Brazilian s ...

). Many

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 ...

have been described.

Etymology

Thamyris In Greek mythology, Thamyris (Ancient Greek: Θάμυρις, ''Thámuris'') was a Thrace, Thracian singer. He is notable in Greek mythology for reportedly being a lover of Hyacinth (mythology), Hyacinth and thus to have been the first male to hav ...

was a singer in Greek mythology who was so proud of his skill that he boasted he could outsing the Muses. His story is told 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 ...

''.

Taxonomy

Some authors consider ''Morpho thamyris'' to be a

of '' Morpho portis'' ( Hübner,

821 __NOTOC__ Year 821 (Roman numerals, DCCCXXI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Byzantine general Thomas the Slav leads a revolt, and secures control over most of the Byzan ...

References

* Eugène Le Moult & Pierre Réal, 1962-1963. ''Les Morpho d'Amérique du Sud et Centrale'', Editions du cabinet entomologique E. Le Moult, Paris. *

Adalbert Seitz Friedrich Joseph Adalbert Seitz, (24 February 1860 in Mainz – 5 March 1938 in Darmstadt) was a German physician and entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera. He was a director of the Frankfurt zoo from 1893 to 1908 and is best known for editi ...

(Ed.) 1907. ''Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde'', vol. 5. Stuttgart, Alfred Kernen. *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. 2 (Brazil) and page 235 fig. 8, underside (Brazil).

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 of ''Morpho portis thamyris''. Morpho Butterflies described in 1867 Lepidoptera of Brazil Nymphalidae of South America Taxa named by Cajetan von Felder Taxa named by Rudolf Felder {{Morphinae-stub