What is the blue morpho butterfly habitat?

What is the blue morpho butterfly habitat?

tropical forests
Blue morphos live in the tropical forests of Latin America from Mexico to Colombia. Adults spend most of their time on the forest floor and in the lower shrubs and trees of the understory with their wings folded. However, when looking for mates, the blue morpho will fly through all layers of the forest.

What is the host plant for the blue morpho butterfly?

Machaerium salvadorensis
Host Plants (Back to Top) Machaerium salvadorensis (Fabaceae) is the major host plant of some Morpho peleides in El Salvador, and several legumes (Fabaceae) have been reported as hosts for Morpho peleides in Costa Rica.

What plants do blue morpho butterflies like?

pea family
It uses its proboscis (long, protruding mouth part) to drink sap and fruit juices. But like all butterflies, adult morphos were plant-chomping caterpillars as youngsters. Blue morpho caterpillars are especially fond of leaves in the pea family.

What do morpho butterflies need to survive?

Sticking to the Bottom Most predators, usually birds or large insects, seek prey higher in the canopy, so the blue morpho prefers the security found at lower elevations. With plentiful food near and on the forest floor, shrubs and lower tree branches provide excellent protection for the butterflies.

Why are blue morpho butterflies important?

The Blue Morpho Butterfly is of obvious ecological importance because other Amazonian creatures prey upon it. But this species is also one small component that contributes to the overall biological diversity of the Amazon, and biodiversity is a feature worth protecting in itself.

Are blue morpho butterflies rare?

The Blue Morpho’s Color isn’t What You’d Expect In fact, the blue morpho uses structural color to get its particular shade of blue. Blue is actually an extremely rare color in nature. These butterflies have scales that overlap, refracting light similar to a prism.

What are blue butterflies a symbol of?

Meaning of Blue Butterfly Butterflies are also popularly thought to symbolize a person’s essence, or soul, either past, present or future. The color blue in a butterfly is often thought to symbolize joy, color or a change in luck. Sometimes a blue butterfly is viewed as a wish granter.

Is the blue morpho butterfly poisonous?

8. Are blue morpho butterflies poisonous? Yes. As caterpillars, the leaves they feed on contained a poisonous compound which then makes them toxic to predators as adults.

How do blue morpho butterflies communicate?

3: How do butterflies communicate? Adult butterflies communicate with one another mostly through chemical cues—the males produce chemicals called pheromones to seduce the females. Additionally, a few species communicate with sound. The male Cracker butterfly (Hamadryas) can make loud noises with his wings.

What is the rarest color butterfly?

blue butterflies
Blue is the rarest occurring colour in nature, with no true blue pigments in plants. In some ways, blue butterflies are natures way of completing the colour spectrum. From South American wonders to local Tropical icons, here’s some stunning blue butterflies from around the world…

Are blue morpho butterflies helpful or harmful?

Are blue morpho butterflies poisonous? Yes. As caterpillars, the leaves they feed on contained a poisonous compound which then makes them toxic to predators as adults.

What does Morpho eat?

Morpho butterflies feed on the juices of fermenting fruit with which they may also be lured. The inebriated butterflies wobble in flight and are easy to catch. Morphos will also feed on the bodily fluids of dead animals and on fungi.

What is the species of a blue butterfly?

The species Lycaeides argyrognomon, whichincludes the lotis blue butterfly and 12 other subspecies or forms, is also referred to Lycaeides idas, or Plebejus argyrognomon, and as the northern blue butterfly.

What is a butterfly species?

Butterfly Genus Species. Butterflies are members of the kingdom Animalia , phylum Arthropoda , class Insecta , and order Lepidoptera . Generally, the order Lepidoptera is broken down into two sub-orders: Heterocera (the “varied-antennaed” moths) and the “club-antennaed” Rhopalocera, the sub-order to which the butterflies belong.