photo: Flickr user Art
photo: Lynn C Jackson
photo: Gill Carter
photo: Flickr user Rich Hoyer
Habitat: most of South America
Status: Not Listed
This vivid blue stunner is the Croesus Eyemark (Semomesia croesus), a species of butterfly in the Riodinidae family.
Butterflies of this genus are actually sexually dimorphic. That means the males look one way (in this case a gorgeous iridescent blue with prominent oscilli, or eyespots) and the females look another (muddled brown with white bands).
female; photo: Gill Carter
Obviously males are way showier than females so that they can have that sex appeal. To me it looks like they have the human equivalent of baby blue eyes that you just want to get lost in. Er, sorry. That read like a bad line from a Nicholas Sparks novel.
Basically, they’re just super attractive insects. The end.
