Snow-Tipped Cap - _TNY_1375
"My" local butterfly house typically has two species of blue morpho - the Peleides blue morpho (Morpho peleides) which has metallic blue dorsal side of the wings (with a black edge) and the blue-banded morpho (Morpho achilles) with black wings with a metallic blue band over them.
When sitting (standing) they normally fold their wings like this which makes it more difficult to tell them apart as the colouration on the ventral side is much more similar.
M. peleides typically have a wider white band along the back edge of the front wings while a narrow band means it's M. achilles.
But when it is as unusually white like this particular one, it is actually a different species - the amathonte blue morpho (Morpho amathonte)!
This is an uncropped 50-megapixel image so if you zoom in on the wings, you'll find some very nice detail with the scales there. Also, the blue eye looks really cool IMO.
Snow-Tipped Cap - _TNY_1375
"My" local butterfly house typically has two species of blue morpho - the Peleides blue morpho (Morpho peleides) which has metallic blue dorsal side of the wings (with a black edge) and the blue-banded morpho (Morpho achilles) with black wings with a metallic blue band over them.
When sitting (standing) they normally fold their wings like this which makes it more difficult to tell them apart as the colouration on the ventral side is much more similar.
M. peleides typically have a wider white band along the back edge of the front wings while a narrow band means it's M. achilles.
But when it is as unusually white like this particular one, it is actually a different species - the amathonte blue morpho (Morpho amathonte)!
This is an uncropped 50-megapixel image so if you zoom in on the wings, you'll find some very nice detail with the scales there. Also, the blue eye looks really cool IMO.