Morpho sulkowskyi

Morpho sulkowskyi, or Sulkowsky's morpho, is a Neotropical butterfly. It is found in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

Sulkowsky's morpho
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Nymphalidae
Genus: Morpho
Species:
M. sulkowskyi
Binomial name
Morpho sulkowskyi
(Kollar, 1850)

Habitat

Morpho sulkowskyi is a Tropical Andes cloud forest specialist (above 800 to 1,500 meters as high as 3500 meters). Morpho sulkowskyi and Morpho lympharis are the sole Morphos occupying this habitat.

Taxonomy

Morpho sulkowskyi and Morpho lympharis may be conspecific. There are several subspecies and many forms have been described.

Subspecies
  • Morpho sulkowskyi sulkowskyi V. Kollar, 1850
  • Morpho sulkowskyi hoppiana F.W. Niepelt, 1923
  • Morpho sulkowskyi selenaris E. Le Moult & P. Réal, 1962
  • Morpho sulkowskyi sirene F.W. Niepelt, 1911

Similar species

It is very similar to, and maybe conspecific with Morpho lympharis.

Colors
Iridescent colors of Morpho sulkowskyi are caused by the specific nanostructures on its wings (SEM images at the bottom).[1]

The color of a Morpho sulkowskyi is white with a holographic shine to them. Both the presence of fluorescent pigments in their wings and the nanostructure of their wings are responsible for the iridescent fluorescence of M. sulkowskyi. The major blue fluorescent pigment contributing to the fluorescence of M. sulkowskyi was found to be L-erythro biopterin, along with minor components of pterin and isoxanthopterin.[2]

References
  1. Potyrailo, Radislav A.; Bonam, Ravi K.; Hartley, John G.; Starkey, Timothy A.; Vukusic, Peter; Vasudev, Milana; Bunning, Timothy; Naik, Rajesh R.; Tang, Zhexiong; Palacios, Manuel A.; Larsen, Michael; Le Tarte, Laurie A.; Grande, James C.; Zhong, Sheng; Deng, Tao (2015). "Towards outperforming conventional sensor arrays with fabricated individual photonic vapour sensors inspired by Morpho butterflies". Nature Communications. 6: 7959. doi:10.1038/ncomms8959. PMC 4569698. PMID 26324320.
  2. Tabata, H.; Hasegawa, T.; Nakagoshi, M.; Takikawa, S.; Tsusue, M. "Occurrence of biopterin in the wings of Morpho butterflies". Experientia. doi:10.1007/BF01922422.

Further reading
  • 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 234 fig.1 (Brazil) and page 235 fig. 9 as ockendeni (Peru).
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