Hypna clytemnestra

With its wings folded, this butterfly shows a brown underside that looks like a leaf. With its wings open, the upper side is close to black, with wide white stripes across it. In the middle of the hindwing there is a clear white spot, and a few more white spots sit near the wing's front edge.

• Silver-studded Leafwing ufl.edu, accessed 20 October 2026
• Morphological and Spatial Diversity of the Discal Spot on the Hindwings of Nymphalid Butterflies: Revision of the Nymphalid Groundplan doi.org, accessed 20 October 2026

The sources say the species is made up of several subspecies that together reach from Mexico to Brazil, across Central and South America. One subspecies is listed for Cuba and another for western Mexico and Guatemala. A third covers a wide area from Nicaragua south to Bolivia. Other subspecies were first described from Surinam and from several parts of Brazil.

• Silver-studded Leafwing Hypna clytemnestra (Cramer, 1777) | Butterflies and Moths of North America butterfliesandmoths.org, accessed 20 October 2026
• Hypna clytemnestra thumbnails butterfliesofamerica.com, accessed 20 October 2026
• Silver-studded Leafwing ufl.edu, accessed 20 October 2026

Like other butterflies, this species goes through a caterpillar stage and a chrysalis stage before it becomes an adult. Younger caterpillars make a small perch wrapped in silk from the bare center vein of a leaf, and they rest there. Older caterpillars have bumps on their bodies, each with a thick dark spine. Soon after it forms, the chrysalis turns dark green and gets silvery patches, mostly over the parts that will become wings.

• natural history of hypna clytemnestra cr. yale.edu, accessed 20 October 2026
• Silver-studded Leafwing ufl.edu, accessed 20 October 2026