| English Name: Blue Morpho Butterfly |
Spanish Name: Morpho Spp.
Size: Wingspan 6 inches .
Life span: It can live up to a month.
Diet: They eat a nectar, and a plant called Erythroxyhum Pilchrum. When an a adult it drinks juice off fruits.
Predators: Baby jaguars, birds, fish when near
water, large insects, and humans.
Adaptations: Uses the sun, to reflect their blue wings,
and blind their predators.
Interesting Facts: Protects itself by reflecting
the sun off their wings to the baby jaguars eyes, to blind them. The Blue
Morphy Butterfly starts as an egg and then turns into a caterpillar
and then into a bright blue butterfly. Folds wings up together when
sleeping and to protect itself from predators. They are called Morpho
because it is similar to a moth. Sleeps hanging off a branch.
It goes through 4 stages of its life cycle. Scientists think
it absorbs sun light from siting on branches with their wings spread apart.
There are 17 kinds of Morpho Butterflies that are very alike, some with
different colored wings. The female has less bright wings with a
brown edging.
Bibliography:
"Blue Morpho Butterfly Printout" 12 Mar.
2003
<http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/butterfly/activities/printouts/morphoprintout.shtml>
"World Wildlife Fund Travel" 12 Mar. 2003
<www.worldwildlife.org/travel/itinerary/ costa_rica_itin03.ht>
( picture bibliography)
Researchers: Winsor, Iñigo, Rumy
