Butterflies

[guppiecat]

The pattern on the outside/lower side of their wings helps them to camouflage when landing on bark. This only works, though, when they actually land on bark.

Originally posted at stories.starmind.org.

Comments

[carbonel]

I'm no entomology maven, but that looks pretty mothlike.

[guppiecat]

They're blue morpho butterflies. They're a tropical species with bright blue on the tops of the wings, and a dull camouflage on the bottoms. So they blend in when they land, but are bright and colourful in flight.

[carbonel]

Thanks for the info. However, I see no blue. I know (or at least assume) you don't either, which is why I mention it.

[guppiecat]

Yes, because their wings are closed so we're only seeing the bottoms (undersides). If they were open, they'd look like this:

[carbonel]

Wow. That looks like a totally different critter.