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.
all these females come from the same spot, about 10 km from Palora, except the last one found 12 km East of Puyo.
