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