Blue Morpho Butterfly

My wife and I collected butterflies one time in the jungles of Peru. We were living as US Peace Corps volunteers in lowland tropical jungle in central eastern Peru at a place called Tournavista (Actually Bosque Nacional de Iparia) on the Rio Pachitea. We collected many many species of butterflies there including several small relatives of the blue morphos which did exhibit the flourescent blue color. But, we did not see the giant blue morphos in this environment.

When we travelled through the high jungle (termed ¨seja de la selva¨) at a place called Tingo Maria we did encounter and were able to collect several blue morphos there. While we never saw blue morphos in large groups, we could remain in a single spot and one would show up every half hour of so.

While blue morphos present a huge target compared to other butterflies, they were also by far the hardest for us to catch. With a single flap of the wings the morphos would seemingly bound great distances. The flourescent blue color beams in the sunlight and makes the butterfly appear many times larger than its actual size. When it snaps closed it wings, on the other hand, the morpho exposes a dark camoflage pattern that resembles the eye of an owl. The camoflage pattern causes the once brilliant animal to literally disappear from site. Imagine my frustration at swatting my huge net at the glowing target only to see the blue morpho open its wings to reveal its brilliant glory an instant later twenty feet away!

You might have luck seeing blue morphos on Volcano Mombacho. If not, you should be able to see lots of them in rainforest environments of Matagalpa, Jinotega, Waslala, Siuna, Bonanza, and BOSAWAS. I do rarely see them here in Prinzapolka.