During the summer, I participated in a two week summer course in tropical biology. An extra motivation to take the class was the setting: Belize. The first week in Belize was spent in the Chiquibul forest. Each of us had been assigned a taxonomic group to be the “expert” on. I was in charge of Lepidoptera: moths and butterflies.

Alongside my ID sheets, I had been given a butterfly net. Butterflies can be quite difficult to get a good look at when they are flying all over the place. So instead I was supposed to just catch them in the net and I could take a better look. It sounded manageable and with some of the species it was. I caught a few smaller butterflies and it was a bit of a confidence boost…and then there was the blue morpho butterfly.

[Photo] Successful catch. Megan Siemann                                             [Photo]. Blu Morpho. Lewisginter.org

The Blue Morpho, very iconic and quite large, nagged at my confidence all trip. It would fly right by me and I would be chasing after it net in hand…with a backpack on…in rain boots. I was almost convinced it was a single butterfly teasing me all week, playing games with me. Truly though, the butterfly-with bright blue upper wings-camouflages quite well when it is landed and its wings are closed. When in flight, with the wingspan of a small bird(5-8 in), the butterfly can fly quite quickly. In fact it flies so quickly that a spastic college student such as myself cannot catch it.