Butterfly Photography: Riodina lysippoides

Lysippoides Metalmark

Copulation. 2014, Entre Rios, Argentina

The Lysippoides Metalmark is a small butterfly in the Riodinidae family. It was the first metalmark butterfly I ever saw outside of Europe. There's actually only one species of the Riodinidae family in Europe (Hamearis Lucina), but around the world there are more than 1500 species in the Riodinidae family, most of which appear in the Neotropical area.

The common name of the family, "metalmarks", comes from the fact that many of the species have a beautiful, shiny and metallic look. But this is not the case with Lysippoides Metalmark which, however, looks stylish with its black base color and orange bands. The shape of its wings caught my attention as it was something I had not seen before in Europe.

The common name of the butterfly is "Danzarina chica" which means "Little dancer". Maybe that refers to its behavior as it seemed to constantly rotate around when it was settled on a plant. That made photographing the butterfly slightly more challenging.