Glorious Purplewing butterfly

Dorsal view of a male Eunica sophonisba specimen, otherwise known as Glorius Purplewing. This species occurs in Venezuela, Surinam, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil and Bolivia.

Part of the collection donated to the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History by retired U.S. Marine Colonel Stanley S. Nicolay, who was known for his field research on the butterflies of Panama and Ecuador and for his taxonomic papers on Neotropical Lycaenidae and Hesperiidae. Nicolay, who was a longtime collaborator with Smithsonian entomologists, donated his collection of 42,000 specimens to the Museum.