Madagascar Photo Gallery: Invertebrates

We are not experts on Madagascar invertebrates. If we have misidentified something or if you know the species names for something we could not identify, contact us and we will correct it.

Butterflies and moths: Madagascar has 297 species of butterflies, 210 of which are endemic. Most of them are diurnal. And it also has 268 known moth species, mostly nocturnal.

Unidentified butterfly

Unidentified moth

Unidentified butterfly

Dark grass blue (African grass blue), Zizeeria knysna, is found in Africa, Cyprus, and the Iberian Peninsula.

Common smoky blue (smoky bean Cupid), Euchrysops malathana, is found in southwestern Arabia, Africa south of the Sahara, and Madagascar.

Unidentified moth

Small grass yellow, Eurema brigitta, is found in India, Australia, and Africa.

Plain tiger (African monarch), Danaus chrysippus orientis, is very common, found in Asia, Africa, and southern Europe.

Unidentified moths

Unidentified butterfly

African swallowtail (mocker swallowtail, flying handkerchief), Papilio dardanus, is found throughout sub-Saharan Africa.

Unidentified butterfly

Common leopard (spotted rustic), Phalanta phalanta aethiopica, found in sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia. They love sun and avoid shade.

Common zebra blue, Leptotes pirithous

Unidentified butterfly

Glasswings:

Acraea ranavalona, found in Madagascar and Comoros.

Acraea lia, found in Madagascar, Comoros, Mayotte, and Ajouan in grasslands.

Brilliant blue, Juonia rhadama, is found in Madagascar, Mauritius, Rodrigues, Reunion, and Astove Island in the Seychelles.

Unidentified butterfly

Graphium cyrnus is found in Madagascar forests.

Unidentified butterfly

Anthene princeps smithii

Unidentified butterfly

Heteropsis andasibe

Unidentified butterfly

Unidentified moth

Bees and wasps:

Ants:

Grasshoppers:

Unidentified grasshoppers:

Phymateus saxosus

Flatid leaf bugs, Phromnia sp., adults and nymphs. The nymphs exude a white waxy substance that grows up from the animal like wispy feathers.

Dragonflies:

Crickets:

Stick insects:

Flies:

Praying mantis, Empusa sp.

Water strider:

Unidentified insects:

The giraffe weevil, Trachclophorus giraffa, is endemic to Madagascar. The neck of the male is two or three times longer than that of the female and is used in nest bulding and fighting.