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MEXICAN PLANTS & ANIMALS HOME
Excerpts from Jim Conrad's
Naturalist Newsletter
from the May 30, 2010 Newsletter issued from Hacienda Chichen Resort beside Chichén Itzá Ruins, central Yucatán, MÉXICO; limestone bedrock, elevation ~39m (~128ft), ~N20.676°, ~W88.569°
RUDDY DAGGERWING
Another new pretty one, shown flitting about male flowers of a Croton, is shown above.
Bea identifies this one as the Ruddy Daggerwing, MARPESIA PETREUS, a member of the enormous Brush-footed Butterfly Family, the Nymphalidae, and in the same subfamily as North America's well-known Admirals.
Ruddy Daggerwings are fair-sized butterflies, about three inches across (9 cm), orangish on top, and mottled brown and black below, camouflaged as a dead leaf. Their caterpillars feed on fig trees, which are common here.
Ruddy Daggerwings are found in tropical lowlands forests and edges from the US/Mexico border (some strays as far north as Nebraska) through Mexico and Central America to Brazil.