Blue Morpho Butterfly, Beautiful Native Butterfly

One of the most gorgeous inhabitants of Quintana Roo is the blue morpho butterfly. As large as many birds, you will see it as it flutters by, flashing its metallic blue wings, seeming to disappear and reappear, like something out of a magic trick. The underside of its wings is in subtle brown tones, with many eyespots, providing wonderful camouflage against those that would want to eat it. (If you try to take a photograph, the butterfly will inevitably be in a resting position, with only the brown side of its wings visible…)

Its lifespan is only 115 days, so we enjoy its beauty while we can. While it can live at any time in our hot climate, and is a jungle dweller, they are usually most plentiful in our part of Mexico from November through January.

The blue morpho’s diet constantly changes as it moves through each stage of its lifecycle. While a caterpillar, it prefers to chew on the leaves of plants in the pea family. When it becomes a butterfly, it no longer chews; rather, it drinks its food thorough a proboscis, sipping the juice of rotting fruit, the fluids of decomposing animals, tree sap, fungi, and wet mud. (Rather a disgusting diet for such a lovely creature!!)