The most beautiful butterfly in the world!

Blue Morpho Dorsal

My friend Dot and I were walking to the dining hall on this amazing island in the Panama Canal when a gorgeous bright blue butterfly called a Blue Morpho fluttered just 20 feet in front of us. Since I’m in Panama and they use the metric system, I guess I should really say 6 meters in front of us.  It was iridescent and the sun made it look even shinier.  It was so large that I would have needed both hands to hold it.  But, I would never hold or touch a butterfly because it removes some of its small powdery scales (that it needs for protection and survival).

Blue Morpho Ventral

The most shocking thing was how different its ventral surface (underside) was from the gorgeous blue dorsal surface.  The ventral surface was brown striped with 2 large (and several smaller) eyespots to scare away potential predators. Did you know that butterflies generally rest with their wings folded up like in my photo, while moths usually rest with their wings spread out flat?

Moth keeps its wings spread out while resting

Here is a photo of a very large moth that was on the floor in the lab.  You can see it’s resting with its wings out flat.  I’ve also included photos of both sides of this spectacular butterfly for you. 

- Fran Zakutansky