Named after a shell
Its wings have the same soft, shifting shine as mother-of-pearl, the lining of an oyster shell.
The Congo rainforest · Butterflies and moths
Mother-of-pearl butterfly
Protogoniomorpha parhassus
A large, pale butterfly that shimmers green, pink and violet, like the inside of a shell.
- Size
- Wingspan 7 to 9cm
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Forest and thick bush across tropical Africa
Floats after you, flashing as it turns. Move your pointer and see.
When to look
Mother-of-pearl
Good to know
Six things about the mother-of-pearl
Colour without paint
The pink and violet are not pigment. They come from the way tiny ridges on the scales bend the light.
A leaf underneath
With its wings shut it looks like a pale dead leaf, complete with a stalk.
It likes a sunny perch
It sits on leaves at the edge of a clearing with wings half open, and flies up at anything that passes.
A wet and a dry coat
Butterflies that hatch in the dry season are larger and pinker than those of the wet season.
They sleep together
On cool evenings several may gather to roost under the same big leaf.
The real thing
Photos of the mother-of-pearl
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Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
How to spot one
Walk along a forest path where sunlight comes through. Look for a flash of pale green that settles a little above head height.
How to help
It needs forest edge and thicket, and does well wherever some trees are left standing.
Keep going
More from The Congo rainforest
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