Blue without any blue
The wings have no blue colouring. Tiny ridges on the scales bounce back only blue light.
Amazon rainforest
Blue morpho butterfly
Morpho menelaus
A big butterfly whose wings are dazzling metallic blue on top and dull brown underneath.
- Size
- Wingspan up to 15cm
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Rainforest from Central America to the Amazon
Flutters after you, flashing blue. Move your pointer and see.
When to look
Blue morpho
Good to know
Six things about the blue morpho
Now you see it
As it flaps, blue top and brown underside show by turns, so it seems to appear and vanish.
False eyes
The brown underside has a row of eye-spots that may startle a bird.
No flowers for me
Adults drink the juice of rotting fruit, tree sap and the damp of wet mud.
Seen from the air
Pilots flying low over the forest have reported seeing the blue flashes from above.
A short life
From egg to the end of its life takes about four months, and the butterfly lives only a few weeks.
The real thing
Photos of the blue morpho
Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
How to spot one
Walk a forest track or a stream bank on a sunny morning and watch for a flash of blue bouncing along at head height.
How to help
Butterfly farms run by forest communities give people a living from a standing forest. Buying from them helps to keep the trees.
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