Clearwing Satyr Butterfly from Ecuador

bugman

April 28th, 2007 at 12:00 am

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clear winged butterfly from Ecuador
Hi Bugman,
I photographed this beautiful butterfly in the rainforest of eastern Ecuador, near the north bank of the Rio Napo, on Feb 23, 2007. I haven’t been able to identify it. Can you tell me what species it is? We’d love to be able to put a species name and common name with the photo on the web site. Thanks,
Stephanie Donaldson

Hi Stephanie,
Identifying tropical insects is often very difficult for us since there is not as much information available online or in text books as there is for North American or European species. We will post your image and try to identify it in the future. Additionally, many times our readers provide us with answers for unidentified species. Many Clearwing Butterflies, also known as Glasswings, are in the subfamily Heliconiinae, a division of the Nymphalidae.

Update: (04/30/2007)
We had a commitment today to supervise a computer lab. While the students worked, we whiled away the hours doing some web research. We did not positively identify this species, but we are nearly certain this is a Clearwing Satyr in the genus Cithaerias.