So what this strange and possibly French electronic keyboard is doing in the butterfly house I don't know. It wasn't making any sound but it was a good enough perch. We know that is a blue morpho by the seven circle pattern on the underside of the wing. And where does the name morpho come from, anyway? Morpheus? So many questions.
Our wonderful botanical garden has a butterfly house and research facility in the exurbs. It's far enough from home that we don't go often but Ellie likes it. They arranged a special event for the month by shipping in a thousand blue morphos from their station in Costa Rica.
These are tough little buggers to photograph. They won't sit still and pose, leading to this so-so picture in which you can't see the head or body. The iridescent color comes from an amazingly complex evolutionary process, which you could read up on at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morpho_menelaus. More of this to come.
