About 3 days ago a new species of butterfly appeared on one of my Tropical Milkweed flowers as seen in these two photos, another new species for me. The Banner Metalmark, Thisbe lycorias, is a striking butterfly found from Mexico south through Central America to the Western Amazonian Basin of Peru. It has also been called the “Foxface Metalmark” and one of my older books the “Fox-face Lemmark,” meaning as with many species, I struggle to keep up with multiple names, but now default to whatever iNaturalistCR is using and only rarely do they differ from BAMONA, my second-ranked online source.
It appears in only two of my several Costa Rica butterfly books and with limited information. So I researched the scientific name Thisbe lycorias and that’s how I came up with the headline for today’s post. In short “Thisbe” was a Babylonian forest nymph and part of their early legends, while “Lycorias” was a Greek sea nymph as part of their early stories and myths. If you didn’t know, historically a nymph was a “minor nature Goddess” in those early tales. 🙂
From Google & Wikipedia: “When British entomologist William Chapman Hewitson first described the species in 1853, it was standard practice among European naturalists to pluck names from classical Greek and Roman texts. By pairing the Babylonian nymph Thisbe with the sea nymph Lycorias, the scientific name became a poetic nod to ancient folklore.” 🙂 With the “fairy-like” appearance of so many butterflies, that early naming practice is sort of understandable. 🙂 And I’ve started a gallery on this species with 4 shots from this one observation: Banner Metalmark, Thisbe lycorias.
Enjoy today’s “nature goddess,” Thisbe Lycorias!
🙂
¡Pura Vida!
