Morpho telemachus

Morpho telemachus
Male upperside (Muséum de Toulouse)
Male underside (Muséum de Toulouse)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Nymphalidae
Genus:	Morpho
Species:	M. telemachus
Binomial name
Morpho telemachus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms
Papilio telemachus Linnaeus, 1758 Papilio perseus Cramer, 1775 (preocc. Fabricius, 1775) Papilio metellus Cramer, 1779 Leonte telemache Hübner, [1819] Morpho scipio C. & R. Felder, 1867 Morpho crameri Kirby, 1871 Morpho perseus demararae Kaye, 1919 Morpho perseus perseus ab. ebeninus Le Moult, 1926 Morpho perseus perseus ab. aureovirescens Le Moult, 1926 Morpho perseus perseus ab. marquei Le Moult, 1926 Morpho perseus ab. pseudohecuba Le Moult, 1926 Morpho perseus ab. semiperseus Le Moult, 1926 Morpho perseus ab. pumilus Le Moult, 1926 Morpho perseus perseus ab. subscipio Le Moult, 1926 Morpho perseus perseus ab. felderi Le Moult, 1926 Morpho (Iphimedeia) f. violetta Le Moult & Réal, 1962 Morpho (Iphimedeia) f. pseudocaius Le Moult & Réal, 1962 Morpho (Iphimedeia) f. viridiaurea Le Moult & Réal, 1962 Morpho perseus foucheri Le Moult, 1926 Morpho perseus foucheri ab. supperseus Le Moult, 1926 Morpho perseus foucheri ab. fuscus Le Moult, 1926 Morpho perseus foucheri ab. decellei Le Moult, 1926 Morpho perseus foucheri ab. bilineatus Le Moult, 1926 Morpho perseus foucheri ab. impunctatus Le Moult, 1926 Morpho iphiclus f. martini Niepelt, 1933 Morpho perseus caius Rousseau-Decelle, 1935 Morpho caïus f. tibérius Rousseau-Decelle, 1935 Morpho perseus margareta Weber, 1944 Morpho perseus mutius Weber, 1944 Morpho perseus obscura Viette, 1960 Morpho (Iphimedeia) telemachus straeleni Le Moult & Réal, 1962 Morpho (Iphimedeia) telemachus exsusarion Le Moult & Réal, 1962 Morpho (Iphimedeia) telemachus foucheri f. ochropterus Le Moult & Réal, 1962 Mropho (Iphimedeia) f. iphimutius Le Moult & Réal, 1962 Morpho (Iphimedeia) telemachus caius f. emortua Le Moult & Réal, 1962 Morpho (Iphimedeia) telemachus foucheri f. bicolor Le Moult & Réal, 1962 Morpho (Iphimedeia) telemachus foucheri f. iphiclina Le Moult & Réal, 1962 Morpho (Iphimedeia) telemachus martini f. tricolor Le Moult & Réal, 1962 Morpho (Iphimedeia) telemachus martini f. coeruleoviridis Le Moult & Réal, 1962 Morpho perseus sulla Weber, 1963 Morpho penelope Weber, 1962 Morpho telemachus martini f. equatorius Blandin & Jeannot, 1977 Morpho perseus lilianae ab. pseudotheseus Le Moult, 1927 Morpho perseus lilianae f. horracki Rousseau-Decelle, 1936 Morpho (Iphimedeia) f. fauveli Le Moult & Réal, 1962 Morpho (Iphimedeia) f. dives Le Moult & Réal, 1962 Morpho (Iphimedeia) f. hypogyna Le Moult & Réal, 1962 Morpho (Iphimedeia) telemachus issalisi Le Moult & Réal, 1963

Morpho telemachus is a Neotropical butterfly.

Female

Description

Morpho telemachus is a large butterfly. The upperside of the forewings is a silver grey and blue green with a very wide black-brown outer edge. This is also on the posterior wings and can even cover almost all of the hindwings and forewings. There is a black band on half of the costal edge from the base.

The underside is copper brown with a line of black white and orange ocelli black white and orange, in an arc on both the hindwings and forewings.

Subspecies

• M. t. telemachus Suriname, Guyana, French Guiana, Venezuela
• M. t. iphiclus C. & R. Felder, 1862 Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil (Amazonas, Pará)
• M. t. lilianae Le Moult, 1927 Venezuela
• M. t. ssp. Ebert, MS Brazil (Pernambuco)

Behaviour

In 1913, Hans Fruhstorfer wrote: "According to Michael perseus [synonym for telemachus] is never seen fluttering round flowers, nor do the butterflies seem to require food or drink. They prefer rather to soar through the spaces of the illimitable forests like Morpho hecaba or to float along in unrestricted flight over the tops of the trees in a deep valley. According to Hahnel perseus is one of the highest-flying Morphids and on account of its brown under surface, which looks very dark against the light sky, it gives the impression, when flying at a height of 8-10 m, of a black coloured species. Hahnel says that the butterflies, which in spite of their lively, jerky movement through the air scarcely flap the wings appreciably, present a charming spectacle, particularly when half a dozen or more meet and engage in a sham fight. Almost the whole morning such scenes are repeated, for only towards midday, after they have been flying over their wide domain for 2 or 3 hours, do their pinions become weary and they settle again in the shade of the branches on some large leaf, the back turned towards the dark and the eyes towards the open. One rarely finds even a single insect flying in the afternoon and then probably only when unfavourable weather has hindered its doing so in the morning. The butterflies occasionally dart down on to yellow Papilio females drinking on the ground, undoubtedly taking them for their own females which are also frequently yellow, and Dr. Hahnel took advantage of this by fastening pieces of yellow paper in his net, which actually deceived the perseus males."[1]

Etymology

The species is named in the classical tradition for Telemachus, a figure in Greek mythology, the son of Odysseus and Penelope, and a central character in Homer's Odyssey.

References

1. Fruhstorfer, H. 1913. Family: Morphidae. In A. Seitz (editor), Macrolepidoptera of the World, vol. 5: 333–356. Stuttgart: Alfred Kernen.

• Le Moult (E.) & Réal (P.), 1962-1963. Les Morpho d'Amérique du Sud et Centrale, Editions du cabinet entomologique E. Le Moult, Paris.
• Paul Smart, 1976 The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Butterfly World in Color. London, Salamander: Encyclopedie des papillons. Lausanne, Elsevier Sequoia (French language edition)ISBN 9780948427046 ISBN 0600313816 page 231 fig.5 f. metellus Cr., underside(Brazil)

External links

• "Morpho Fabricius, 1807" at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms