The Glasswing Butterfly

Glasswing Butterfly
By Rachele Baker, DVM – I am mesmerized by the unusual beauty of Glasswing butterflies. Glasswing butterflies (Greta oto) are primarily found in the rainforests of Central America including Mexico, Costa Rica, and Panama, but have been seen as far south as Columbia and Venezuela in South America.
Glasswing butterflies’ transparent wings help to camouflage them from predators. Their clear wings make it very difficult for predatory birds to track them when they are in flight. It is hard to follow the flight of the Glasswing as it flits through the patches of light and shadow formed by the rainforest understory. You will see what I mean when you watch the following video of male Glasswings engaging in “lekking.”
Male Glasswings engage in competitive displays called “lekking” to entice female Glasswings to mate with them. Click on the photo below to go to the video of male Glasswings performing dazzling flight displays to win the attention of female Glasswings on “The Magic of Life Butterfly House” website.
During lekking, male Glasswings try to attract females with sex pheromones released from small hairs along their rear wings. Glasswings ingest the nectar of flowers from the Asteraceae and Boraginaceae families such as Forget-Me-Nots. The nectar from these flowers contains substances called pyrrolizidine alkaloids that are used in the production of sex pheromones.
I captured this image of mating Glasswings from the video on “The Magic of Life Butterfly House” website.
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Gorgeous creatures Rachele! I never heard of them before. They are truly beautiful! Thanks for sharing them!
Thanks, Ali!
That is incredible! The video was really beautiful.
Thanks, M.K.!
WOW – never saw these before – thanks for sharing.
WOOF!
Thanks, Piranha!
Gorgeous! I have also never seen these before. I love learning about special creatures. Thank you!
Wow! So beautiful!!! 🙂
What an amazing butterfly!
What an amazingly beautiful creature! Thanks for sharing! *wags* – Gilligan
Oh my…what beautiful butterflies. I never heard of the glasswing before…it is so cool how its wings are see-through.
WOW! beautiful creatures. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of these before. This spring I will certainly have my eye out for a sighting.
I’ve never seen one before, they are so beautiful.
Beautiful picture! Happy WW to you all!
Wow those are gorgeous!
Wow, those are beautiful. Truthfully I had never heard of this butterfly. Thank you for sharing and thank you for joining the blog hop.
Hi Y’all!
Oh gee golly they are beautiful. We just saw our first butterfly in the yard today. Spring is definitely in the air!
Y’all come on by,
Hawk aka BrownDog
Those are really neat. I have never heard of them. We went to a butterfly house once and they did not have glasswings, but it was cool to watch all of the other butterflies. Thanks for joining the hop.
Wow! I have never seen one of those before!!! Love it!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack
Hi Rachele, These butterflies are simply amazing! I would love to see one in person.
Btw, I wanted to let you know that I’ve nominated you for the Liebster Award! I’ve enjoyed following your blog for a while now and wanted to share it with more blog readers. If you wish to accept the award, just check my latest blog post for details.