wingspan : 82/96 mm
Lycorea ilione, Tena, Pimpilala, volcan Sumaco and road to Loreto km 25.
subspecies albescens, which flies in Mexico and Central America, is very distinctive and does not vary much.
the same, unfortunately, cannot be said of Lycorea ilione East of the Andes ; there used to be eight subspecies, now they're down to three, but three dubious ones :
- no one can tell decolorata (Ecuador) from lamirus (Peru),
- on butterfliesofamerica the type of lamirus (from Peru ?) has a label with "Am. Centr.", and the two lectotypes come from Colombia,
- again on butterfliesofamerica the type of phenarete duly comes from Bolivia, but syntypes come from Peru, particularly from San Martin ;
- and, last but not least, it is an extremely variable species ; out of maybe twenty specimens from Sangay NP we do not have two identical ones https://www.sangay.eu/en/fiche-papillon/007-Danaidae/_/_/005-Lycorea/005-îlione/_
so we prefer to call these butterflies Lycorea ilione, period.
