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Luminary Oddities · Natural history & art
Urania leilus
Lepidoptera / Uraniidae
Urania leilus is a day-flying Neotropical moth with iridescent green bands and pale hindwing tails. Field studies document migration, while comparative research examines its distribution and specialized larval hosts.
Read the species account
Urania leilus belongs to Uraniidae. Museums Victoria holds an identified adult from Óbidos, Pará, Brazil, and the Catamarca study describes its daytime activity. [1][3]
A 2021 study treats U. leilus and U. fulgens as distinct continental species with geographically separated distributions. [2]
Uraniine host studies record Omphalea, a genus in Euphorbiaceae, as the larval food-plant association for Urania. [4]
A 2021 study examined the ecological niches and distributions of Urania leilus and Urania fulgens in relation to Omphalea hosts. The authors identified the Andes as an important geographic barrier separating their distributions. [2]
The species retains Linnaeus’s 1758 epithet from Papilio leilus. Swainson illustrated it as Leilus surinamensis in 1832–1833. The modern combination is Urania leilus. [8]
Repeated green bands cross the dark wings, while the pale tails extend the hindwing outline. The dorsal and ventral views show the arrangement across both wing pairs.
Scott Schubr’s illustration emphasizes bright bands against dark wings and the pale tail region. Green and cyan treatments explore the pattern through bold contours and simplified colour.
Display framed work away from direct sunlight, persistent damp and strong heat. Handle the enclosure and follow the maker’s instructions for exterior cleaning.
Museums Victoria · Accessed 2026-10-09
Nuñez-Penichet, Cobos and Soberón, Frontiers of Biogeography 13(2), 2021 · Accessed 2026-10-09
Reales et al., Acta Zoológica Lilloana 69(2), 2025 · Accessed 2026-10-09
Lees and Smith, Journal of the Lepidopterists’ Society 45(4), 1991 · Accessed 2026-10-09
Victor C. Quesnel, Trinidad and Tobago Field Naturalists’ Club Journal, 1971 · Accessed 2026-10-09
Hausmann et al., PLOS ONE 15(1), 2020 · Accessed 2026-10-09
iBOL Barcode Bulletin / research team account · Accessed 2026-10-09
William Swainson, 1832–1833, digitized by Project Gutenberg · Accessed 2026-10-09
Sources checked 2026-10-11. Illustrations · Luminary Oddities.
Return to the Entomological Atlas ↑Universidad Nacional de La Plata, institutional library · Accessed 2026-10-09
Canadian Conservation Institute · Accessed 2026-10-09
