• Animals (Kingdom Animalia)

• Arthropods (Phylum Arthropoda)

• Hexapods (Subphylum Hexapoda)

• Insects (Class Insecta)

• Butterflies and Moths (Order Lepidoptera)

• Butterflies (Superfamily Papilionoidea)

• Brush-footed Butterflies (Family Nymphalidae)

• Satyrs, Morphos, and Allies (Subfamily Satyrinae)

• Morphos and Allies (Tribe Morphini)

• Subtribe Morphina

• Morphos (Genus Morpho)

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The genus Morpho comprises some of the largest and most spectacular butterflies in the world, occurring in the tropical forests of Mexico, Central America, and South America. Morpho butterflies inhabit rainforests, forest edges, and river corridors, where they fly with a distinctive slow, gliding, and bouncing flight through the understory and along forest trails. Adults feed primarily on fermenting fruit, tree sap, fungi, and decaying organic matter, while the caterpillars consume the leaves of various tropical trees and shrubs.