Butterflies & Moths

Hi. The answer to Stacy from Pd.9's question is yes, there are more butterflies other than the Blue Morpho. The endemic (native) species of butterflies in the Galapagos Islands include the Galapagos Sulfur Butterfly, which is very small and has bright yellow wings; the Large Tailed Skipper, which is another small butterfly but it has brown wings; the Green Hawkmoth, which is a large, bright green moth; and the Indefatigable Hawkmoth, which is a moth only found on Santa Cruz. Interestingly, there are a few residence species of butterfly that live on the islands. A residence species is a species that lives in more than one place and came to that location naturally. One of the butterflies that is a residence species to the Galapagos is the Monarch Butterfly, which came to the Galapagos Islands because milkweed was introduced there. It is also the largest butterfly of the Galapagos. Another residence species of the Galapagos Islands is the Fringed Noctuid, which is also the largest species of moths on the Galapagos. It's interesting also how the largest butterfly and moth of the Galapagos are not originally from the Islands. Hopefully that answered your question.

Sincerely,
Daniel pd.1

Good information, Daniel. Don't you think it is fascinating that when milkweed was introduced to the Islands, monarchs somehow found their way there? We are talking hundreds of miles from the mainland!