Male

Female

 

wingspan : 49/57 mm


Hypoleria alema is not a common species, and there are two different looking subspecies in Eastern Ecuador, ina and karschi/chrysodonia


these butterflies, found near Palora could be cross breeds between these two subspecies (Keith R. Willmott pers. com.).


but we feel ill at ease for two reasons ::
     - 1 - whereas Hypoleria ina is a rare butterfly, at best one or two specimens in one trip - I, personnally, collected ten in twenty trips of two/three months each -  those cross breeds were flying in numbers on a 17th of August, a 19th of August and an 18th of november - and I collected forty in three days !
     - 2 - when you find one Hypoleria alema it is nearly always a female, males seem to be scarce, but, in this intergrading population we collected as many males as females.

Hypoleria alema mestiza. cerca de Palora
Hypoleria alema mestiza. a Kapawi lodge

all these males come from the same spot, about 10 km from Palora

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