Narrative

Morpho achilles has a narrow blue band in its wings. It is a mimicry pair in Brazil to Morpho helenor. Morpho achilles is found from Venezuela to Obidos, Brazil.

Subgenus Morpho with 31 species comprises the rest of the Morpho family. Generally hard to tell apart, they are often simply called Morpho achilles. The group exhibits mimicry and convergent evolution. The taxonomy is as complicated as the Heliconids. Similar species have been grouped together here.

SPECIES - - - - - LOCATION
Morpho deidamia - Venezuela & east Brazil & Bolivia
Morpho neoptolemus - Peru to Obidos, Brazil to Colombia
Morpho brisseis - Peru
Morpho hermione - Colombia
Morpho electra - Bolivia and Venezuela (Disjoint)

Morpho lycanor - Colombia to Venezuela
Morpho granadensis - Colombia to Central America

Morpho rugitaeniata - Colombia
Morpho micropthalmus - Colombia
Morpho taboga - Isle off Panama

Morpho peleides - Venezuela and south Colombia
Morpho marinita - Costa Rica and Panama
Morpho montezuma - Mexico to Panama
Morpho octavia - Guatemala to Costa Rica to Panama
Morpho hyacinthus - Mexico to Panama
Morpho corydon - Venezuela and Colombia
Morpho confusa - Colombia
Morpho peleus - Venezuela
Morpho tobagensis - Caribbean
Morpho parallela - North South America

Morpho helenor - Peru to Colombia to Obidos, Brazil
Morpho papirius - Peru
Morpho achilleana - East Brazil and Amazon Basin
Morpho trojana - Brazil and local populations
Morpho leontius - widespread in South America
Morpho coelestis - Bolivia and eastward

Morpho achilles - Venez. to Obidos, Brazil, to Columbia & Argentina (Disjoint)
Morpho patroclus - Peru to Colombia
Morpho pseudogamedes - Peru to Colombia
Morpho guaraunos - Bolivia and Venezuela (Disjoint)
Morpho vitrea - Bolivia and Venezuela (Disjoint)

Morpho neoptolemus-deidamia subgroup is found from Peru to Colombia to eastern Brazil. This group can be recognized by the silver streaking pattern on the underside of the wings.

Morpho helenor subgroup (helenor, papirius, achilleana, trojana, leontius, and coelestis) generally has a rear wing rounded at the corner farthest from the body near the front wing. Their rear wings are more rounded than in the Morpho achilles subgroup.

Morpho achilles subgroup (achilles, patroclus, pseudogamedes, and guaraunos) has a less rounded rear wing than the Morpho helenor subgroup. The corner of the rear wing farthest from the body has a sharper corner than in the M. helenor subgroup. This sharper corner can be noticed very easily by studying the marginal pattern on the underside of the rear wing. In the achilles subgroup, this pattern ends abruptly along the edge of the rear wing toward the front wings. In the M. helenor subgroup, these marginal lines tend to flow around the corner. There are several mimicry pairs between the Morpho achilles and Morpho helenor subgroups.

Per the Gerardo Lamas list of 2004, the following changes have been made to the taxonomy of this group of Morphos:

Morpho neoptolemus(ssp), brisseis(part of neoptolemus), hermione(ssp), and electra(ssp) are all part of the Morpho deidamia complex.

Morpho lycanor and Morpho granadensis are both subspecies of Morpho deidamia.

Morpho rugitaeniata(ssp), micropthalmus(ssp macropthalmus), and Morpho taboga(ssp narcissus) are all part of Morpho helenor.

Morpho peleides(ssp), marinita(ssp), montezuma(ssp), octavia(ssp), hyacinthus(part of ssp montezma), corydon((ssp), confusa(part of peleides ssp), peleus(ssp), tobagensis(part of ssp insularis), and parallela (part of ssp helenor) are now all part of the Central American and northern mainland Morpho helenor.

Morpho papirius((ssp), achilleana(ssp), trojana(part of ssp achillides), leontius(ssp), and coelestis(ssp) are all part of the mainland Morho helenor.

Morpho patrocles(ssp), pseudogamedes( part of ssp agamedes), guaraunos(ssp) are all part of Morpho achilles.

Morpho vitrea is now a subspecies of Morpho achillles.

(We note that the Morpho helenor group has about 30 subspecies per the Lamas list. We suspect that further research will re-divide this mega species into various full species in due course.)

(For example, we have seen a large series of Morphos from Rio Bravo, Colombia that belonged to either Morpho rugitaeniata or Morpho micropthalmus. If two subspecies fly together and do not interbreed, it might imply that these are in fact separate species.)

(For example, we note that Morpho montezuma and Morpho hyacinthus are two life forms that fly in the tropical lowlands of Central America. These two lifeforms might not belong as part of the mainland Morpho helenor.)

(For example, the totally unique color systems of both Morpho octavia and Morpho marinita of Central America might not belong in mainland species of Morpho helenor.)

(For example, the Andes Morpho patroclus might not belong as part of the lower Amazon lifeform of Morpho helenor.)

Morpho butterflies (Family Morphodae) are characterized by their large size and brilliant blue colors. They typically have small bodies and fly with a floating or soaring style. They are found only in the American tropics from Mexico to Southern Brazil.

Because of the brilliant blue colors, large size, and beautiful patterns, many species of these Morphos were used for art work projects from l930 to l990. Cities such as Tingo Maria (Peru), Obidos (Brazil), Santa Catarina (Brazil), and Muzo (Colombia) had networks of collectors that exported large quantities of these beautiful butterflies. Fortunately, the reproductive powers of these species were great, and the collecting seems to have had little impact on the quantity in nature. However, land clearing projects in the natural habitats will impact their populations.

This groups taxonomy is very complicated. For extensive information refer to the Le Moult and Real revision of Les Morpho DAmerique Du Sud Et Centrale published by Le Moult in l962. Prior to this Le Moult revision, there were hundreds of different named forms. Le Moult reduced the species to less than 80 species, and showed that there are some cases of convergent evolution in the family and some surprising mimicry pairs.

LeMoults work includes 672 images of which 144 are in color. Included in these 672 images are over 600 images of types. (Types are the specimens that were used when the species was first described.)

Le Moults work has not generally been accepted by the lepidopterists community. This is no doubt partially because it is in French, and partially because the taxonomy is so complicated that many people do not have the patience to unravel the complicated problems. However, the serious butterfly student will be really rewarded when he can understand that Morpho achilles and Morpho helenor are really a mimicry pair and not sibling species.

Morphos are divided into several different subgenera. The subgenus name is used in several instances as opposed to the common term Morpho.

We have followed the LeMoult organization, as that places similar species near each other. (When working with an alphabetical list, this complicated group gets even more complicated.)

Since 1962 when LeMoult and Real published their revision, there has been considerable additional research. We have noted the changes using the Gerardo Lamas Checklist as published in 2004. These changes are noted in the text for each subgenera.

Additionally, Morpho athena was described in 1966 from RJ, Brazil. Additionally, Morpho absolini has become a full species.

Butterflies and Moths (Order Lepidoptera) are a group of insects with four large wings. They go through various life cycles including eggs, caterpillar (larvae), pupae, and adult. Most butterflies and moths feed as adults, but primarily do most of their growing in the larval or caterpillar stage. Also, most species are restricted to feeding as caterpillars upon a unique set of plants. In this pairing of insects to plants, there arises a unique plant population control system. When one plant species becomes too common, specific pests to that species also become more common and thus prevent the further spreading of that particular plant species.

Although most people think of the Lepidoptera as two different groups: butterflies and moths, technically, the concept is not valid.

Some families, such as Silk Moths (Saturnidae) and Hawk Moths (Sphingidae), are clearly moths. Other families, such as Swallowtail Butterflies (Papilionidae), are clearly butterflies, However, several families exhibit characteristics that appear to be neither moths nor butterflies. For example: the Castnia Moths of South America are frequently placed in the Skipper Family (Hesperidae). The Sunset Moths (Uranidae) have long narrow antennae and fly during the day.

Note: Numerous museums and biologists have loaned specimens to be photographed for this project.

Insects (Class Insecta) are the most successful animals on Earth if success is measured by the number of species or the total number of living organisms. This class contains more than a million species, of which North America has approximately 100,000. (Recent estimates place the number of worldwide species at four to six million.)

Insects have an exoskeleton. The body is divided into three parts. The foremost part, the head, usually bears two antennae. The middle part, the thorax, has six legs and usually four wings. The last part, the abdomen, is used for breathing and reproduction.

Although different taxonomists divide the insects differently, about thirty-five different orders are included in most of the systems.

The following abbreviated list identifies some common orders of the many different orders of insects discussed herein:

Odonata: - Dragon and Damsel Flies
Orthoptera: - Grasshoppers and Mantids
Homoptera: - Cicadas and Misc. Hoppers
Diptera: - Flies and Mosquitoes
Hymenoptera: - Ants, Wasps, and Bees
Lepidoptera: - Butterflies and Moths
Coleoptera: - Beetles

Jointed Legged Animals (Phylum Arthropoda) make up the largest phylum. There are probably more than one million different species of arthropods known to science. It is also the most successful animal phylum in terms of the total number of living organisms.

Butterflies, beetles, grasshoppers, various insects, spiders, and crabs are well-known arthropods.

The phylum is usually broken into the following five main classes:
Arachnida: - Spiders and Scorpions
Crustacea: - Crabs and Crayfish
Chilopoda: - Centipedes
Diplopoda: - Millipedes
Insecta: - Insects

There are several other rare classes in the arthropods that should be mentioned. A more formal list is as follows:

Sub Phylum Chelicerata
C. Arachnida: - Spiders and scorpions
C. Pycnogonida: - Sea spiders (500 species)
C. Merostomata: - Mostly fossil species

Sub Phylum Mandibulata
C. Crustacea: - Crabs and crayfish

Myriapod Group
C. Chilopoda: - Centipedes
C. Diplopoda: - Millipedes
C. Pauropoda: - Tiny millipede-like
C. Symphyla: - Garden centipedes

Insect Group
C. Insecta: - Insects

The above list does not include some extinct classes of Arthropods such as the Trilobites.