Some times when you are in the field you don´t take a photo of a butterfly because you think you already have a good shoot of this species. But you have always to remember that some butterflies have a surviving strategy and evolution to mimic o copy the shape and colors of others butterflies. This is called Mullerian ring and Batesian mimic. So the recommendation is to take every butterfly that allows you to get close, if you lose the opportunity this could be the only picture of this species in the word.
As an example the following photos ilustrate how close some species are, they all belong to the genus Astraptes, of the family Hesperiidae. Down butterflies of the genus Adelpha that has 85 species most of them with orange and white marks in different proportions.
Astraptes brevicauda |
Astraptes egregius |
Astraptes fulgerator |
Astraptes latimargo |
They all look similar but with the photos is easy to tell the differences, but in the field this is not the case, specially in the tropics where the amount of species is great.
Aproveche cada oportunidad
Algunas veces cuando se encuentre en el campo no se toma una foto de mariposa porque se cree que ya se tiene una Buena toma de esta especie. Pero recuerde siempre que algunas mariposas tienen como estrategia de supervivencia y evolución el copiar la forma y color de otras mariposas. Este fenómeno es llamado anillo Mulleriana y mímica Batesiana. Luego la recomendación es tomar cada mariposa que le permita acercarse, si se pierde la oportunidad esta puede ser la única foto de esta especie.
Hay 85 especies del genero Adelpha, la mayoria tienen manchas naranja y blancas en diferentes proporciones.
Adelpha boeotia |
Adelpha erotia |
Adelpha collina |