What a waste of Morpho

Well in a sense to purists like us, but remember these are now bred in their thousands so not such a waste really.

Is it worse than aboriginal people who used them or feathers for a headress or cloak? I think those must be old since Brazil allegedly closed down export of plates and trays like that. There is also the possibility that they are the a2 wings of specimins which had a very damaged wing and so the remaining 3 were used.

If that was made in the last few decades all of those butterflies were farmed - don't see anything wrong with that. But hey, at least it's not this! www.killerdirectory.com/blog/architecture/strange-ceiling.html

Farmed butterflies are just another resource, I think that if someone wants to use them as an art material that is OK. It isn't something that I'd buy though, I don't think it looks very nice.

Johnny

These are probably not bred specimens. The bamboo feeding morphos can be abundant in the right habitat. We were in such a habitat last year, but we were there just a year after all the bamboo had bloomed, died, and of course re-sprouted from seed. This result is a drastic temporary reduction in the Morpho populations for a couple of years.

I collected about 20 nice specimens in an hour in a small spot representing two species (primarily M. portis). My host apologized for the “extremely low numbers” of Morpho, saying that in typical years, we would have seen several hundred males along that road.

He explained that in normal years you would see long “trains” of 10-20 males chasing each other along the opening the road created in the bamboo thicket. You swing the net and catch about 5 -10 at a time. The most I caught in one swing was three

In southern Brasil, every gift shop is full of “Morpho” handicrafts, ranging from the trays advertized above, colorful framed maps of Brasil made of wings, to single specimens in frames. Looking at these products closely it looks like the specimens are mostly wild collected. It is a common business - and seems to be totally unregulated. These products are everywhere!

On the other hand, I was told that females are very rarely collected in the field - we did not see any. Almost all of the female specimens that hit the collector market are reared.

Shuey