Page 256 - The Book of Caterpillars: A Life-Size Guide to Six Hundred Species From Around the World

BUTTERFLY CATERPILLARS

FAMILY Nymphalidae
DISTRIBUTION Central America and northern part of South America
HABITAT Tropical rain forests
HOST PLANTS Leguminosae, including Arachis hypogaea, Lonchocarpus spp.,
Inga spp., Medicago sativa, and Pithecellobium spp.; also at least
one member of Bignoniaceae, Paragonia pyramidata
NOTE Tropical caterpillar that apparently relies mostly on crypsis
for defense
CONSERVATION STATUS Not evaluated, but common, although, like all tropical forest

species, a ected by habitat loss

ADULT WINGSPAN
4–6 in (100–150 mm)
CATERPILLAR LENGTH
4–5 in (100–130 mm)
MORPHO PELEIDES
BLUE MORPHO
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KOLLAR, 1850

The Blue Morpho caterpillar is unusual because its appearance
is neither clearly cryptic nor clearly aposematic. Under the
dark, dull conditions of the tropical forest, its brown burgundy
coloring is likely to blend in, concealing it from predators,
while its neon-yellow or green patterning when viewed from
above makes it look like an unpalatable insect. The peripheral
hairs along the abdomen, for instance, resemble spider legs.
Patterning with such a dual cryptic-aposematic function is
quite common in the tropical forest. The pupa is less colorful
but an equally cryptic green.

The Blue Morpho caterpillar is burgundy with Some consider Morpho peleides a subspecies of M. helenor, which
neon-yellow or green, rhomboid patterning on has a broader range, from Mexico southward. The genus Morpho
its back and sides. It has dorsal and lateral,

nlike tufts of hair as well as tufts of hair on contains some of the largest, most extravagant butter y species
the rst thoracic segment ornamenting the
head. The elaborate pattern vanishes when in the world, famous for their structural iridescent coloration.
the caterpillar suspends itself upside down Many of them are also highly monophagous and rare. The fact
to pupate; the prepupa and pupa are green.
that M. peleides is oligophagous, feeding on relatively common
hosts, is responsible for its success as a species.

Actual size