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Blue Morpho Butterfly — printable fact sheet
Free to print or save as PDF. Great for classrooms, homeschooling, and young explorers.
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Animal Fact Sheet
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Blue Morpho Butterfly
Morpho menelaus
The blue of a morpho is not a pigment, and it is not really "on" the wing at all. Each scale carries rows of microscopic ridges shaped like Christmas trees in cross-section, and light bouncing between the layers interferes with itself, cancelling most wavelengths and reflecting …
Did you know?
- The Blue Morpho's wings appear brown when closed, making it nearly invisible against the forest floor, but flash an electric blue when open, startling would-be predators.
- The morpho's photonic nanostructure has been directly copied by engineers for anti-counterfeiting inks, vapour sensors that change colour when a chemical binds to the structure, and reflective displays. Its wings look blue from above but the animal is essentially invisible when it lands and closes them. Morpho wings were used for decades in tourist jewellery and trays, a trade that consumed enormous numbers of butterflies.
What I learned
Draw the blue morpho butterfly
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