Date of Issue - 6 September 2010
In shades of various colors, butterflies are dainty creatures that have provided many poets and writers, inspiration for the most magnificent verses. Many have marveled at the transformation of the very modest caterpillar into a magnificent butterfly! One such species are the Blue Morpho butterflies.
The French Post has issued a stamp depicting a Blue Morpho butterfly on September 6, 2010.The butterfly is considered a symbol of grace and lightness. A Morpho butterfly may be one of over 80 species of the genus Morpho. They are Neotropical butterflies found mostly in South America as well as Mexico and Central America. The name Morpho, meaning changed or modified, is also an epithet of Aphrodite and Venus. Many Morpho butterflies are colored in metallic, shimmering shades of blue and green. These colors are not a result of pigmentation but are an example of iridescence. Morphos range in wingspan from the 7.5 cm M. rhodopteron to the imposing 20 cm.
To a Butterfly
I've watched you now a full half-hour;
Self-poised upon that yellow flower
And, little Butterfly! Indeed
I know not if you sleep or feed.
More motionless! And then
What joy awaits you, when the breeze
Hath found you out among the trees,
And calls you forth again!
