Northern Pearly-Eye, and Wood Nymph
Sam caught this for me with her insect net way back on June 11, 2010. So here it is as our Christmas Nymphalid Butterfly[1].
This one is a bit unusual, in that the colors and patterns on the underside of the wings are actually bolder and better defined than on the top side.
From the coloration, and the number and relative sizes of the wing spots, I’d say that this is a Northern Pearly-Eye, Enodia Anthedon. It is related to the “wood nymphs”, “satyrs”, “arctics”, and “alpines”, a large group of generally gray-to-brown brush-footed butterflies with eyespots on their wings.
Supposedly, one of the functions of eyespots is to decoy predators to the edges of the wings. Butterfly wings are typically wildly oversized beyond what the insect actually needs to fly, so they can afford to lose some of the wing edges and still be able to get around. So if a bird’s attention is drawn to the eyespot rather than to the body, it is likely to just take a notch out of the wing, and the butterfly itself will have a chance to get away.
Under magnification, the antennae have surprisingly intricate colors. They have orange tips, and alternating black and white stripes running all the way down them.
The larvae are green with white speckles, have little pink horns on their heads, and eat grass. Since this one was caught in the spring (yes, I still consider early June to be “spring” around here, as it still gets kind of cold at night and frost is not unheard-of), they probably overwinter as pupae.
Different but Similar: Wood Nymph
It turns out that there are a number of similar, but not identical, butterflies living in this area. For example, I photographed this next one just about a month later than the Pearly-Eye:
The size, shape, and background color was almost the same, and so I thought it was the same. Which is why I didn’t make a more serious effort to photograph it (and ended up with only two photos that showed any detail at all). But then, I counted the eyespots. This one has a lot fewer, and a lot of them don’t show through on the top side:
Overall, I think this second one is probably a Common Wood Nymph, Cercyonis pegala.
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[1] OK, that’s three Christmases in a row. Now it’s *definitely* a tradition!
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I`ve always wondered why butterflies have such parachute type wings and this post indicates one reason –they can get bits of the wings eaten and still manage. They still look very top heavy and I am always surprised that they don`t simply topple over carrying as they are a sort of Taj Mahal around in wing structures.
The eye spots are very ball gown worthy.
I like the magnification of the antennae to expose the details.
It seems we will never get to the end of our learning about any creature. Who knew that the antennae would be candy striped in this way (albeit in black and white and not Christmas red and white)?
This is all very neat stuff.