Will Minor Butterfly Collection ➔ Aega Morpho (Butterfly) - Will Minor Collection
Historical artifact -- Specimen, Animal
Identifier:
E567Description
Male aega morpho (Morpho aega) - a species of butterfly - specimen, pressed inside of an almost flat, rectangular, plastic container. There is a raised "bubble" in the center of the plastic that houses the body of the specimen.
Original label suggests that the specimen was collected near the Amazon River in Brazil. While the specimen most closely resembles M. aega and is unlikely to represent any other species, this locality is questionable as M. aega does not normally occur in the Amazon basin. This specimen may represent a stray individual or an undocumented historic range extension for M. aega, or the label may simply be incorrect.
The majority of one side of the specimen is iridescent-blue, edged in a dusty-brown with white details. The other side is patterned with different shades of light brown.