Memphis artacaena is a species of leafwing found in South America (Mexico, Costa Rica, and Colombia).*
Description Memphis artacaena is a butterfly with forewings and a humped costal edge, an almost straight outer edge, a concave inner edge and a tailed hind wing. The upper side of the forewings is partly brown, with a metallic light blue-green basal part separated by a band of contiguous white spots. The upper side of the hindwings is light brown with a blue suffusion in the basal part. The reverse side is pearly white decorated with a more or less tight dotted line of small reddish-brown or black dots and simulates a dead leaf.Seitz- A. artacaena Hew. (120 B a) is distributed all over Central America as far as Colombia, but everywhere very rare. Both sexes possess a white band of the forewing being pierced behind the cellule, whereby the species is at once recognizable. It is also - beneath distinguished by a light tinge which strongly contrasts with the dark proximal part of the forewing.
D'Abrera, B. 1988. Butterflies of the Neotropical Region, Nymphalidae, Satyridae. Victoria: Hill House. Pp. 680-723.; present in Mexico, Guatemala, and Panama. Comstock, W. P.1961. Butterflies of the American Tropics: the genus Anaea. Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae. New York: Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 214pp,30pl.
Biology The host plant of its caterpillar is a Croton, Croton schiedeanus.
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