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The Peleides Blue Morpho, Common Morpho,〔(Common Morpho )〕 or The Emperor〔Stiling, P.D. (1986). Butterflies and other insects of the Caribbean. New York:Macmillan Caribbean. p.52.〕 (''Morpho peleides'')〔(''peleides'' ), Lepindex〕 is an iridescent tropical butterfly found in Mexico, Central America, northern South America, Paraguay, and Trinidad. Some authorities〔Lamas, Gerardo (2004). Atlas of Neotropical Lepidoptera; Checklist: Part 4A; Hesperioidea - Papilionoidea.〕 believe that ''peleides'' is a subspecies of ''Morpho helenor''.〔(''Peleides helenor'' ) at funet.fi〕 The brilliant blue color in the butterfly's wings is caused by the diffraction of the light from millions of tiny scales on its wings. It uses this to frighten away predators, by flashing its wings rapidly. The wingspan of the Blue Morpho butterfly ranges from . The entire Blue Morpho butterfly lifecycle, from egg to adult is only 115 days. Known larval foodplants are Leguminosae (''Arachis hypogaea'', ''Dioclea wilsonii'', ''Inga'' spp., ''Lonchocarpus'', ''Machaerium cobanense'', ''Machaerium salvadorense'', ''Machaerium seemannii'', ''Medicago sativa'', ''Mucuna mutisiana'', ''Pithecellobium'', ''Pterocarpus rohrii'', ''Mucuna urens''), and Bignoniaceae (''Paragonia pyramidata''). ''Morpho peleides'' drinks the juices from rotting fruits for food. Its favourites in captivity are mango, kiwi, and lychee. ''Morpho peleides'' butterflies live in the rainforests of South America, and can be found in Mexico and Central America. The larvae of ''Morpho peleides'' butterflies are occasional cannibals. These caterpillars are red-brown with patches of bright green. ''Morpho peleides'' butterflies stick together in groups to deter their predators, a form of mobbing behavior. ==Photographs== File:Bluemorphobutterfly.jpg|''Morpho peleides'' on display at the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Science File:Morpho peleides-01 (xndr).jpg|Underside File:Morpho peleides recently emerged.jpg|''Morpho peleides'' recently emerged; Florida Museum of Natural History, Butterfly Rainforest. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Morpho peleides」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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