CLOSED: Butterfly eyes

I notice that many butterflies have eyes in the wings. To scare off birds I guess. One of ours even imitates a snakes head.

Hi johnpeten, welcome to Daves. The eyes are a defence, the bigger the better! Nature is marvellous.

Do you want to identify your butterfly, or do you already know it's name? It has striped eyes, something I haven't seen before in a butterfly! We have a BugFiles where you can load up your insect pictures, it would be great if you could add to it.

I know very little about Butterflies. I hotograph them in my garden and when they enter my house. It's name would be good then I could start labelling them. We used to have very large exotic species but this was before I had a decent camera. I guess jungle fires deforestation and insecticides have finished them off. I will put some more up for ID
One day hundreds invaded an area by the Lake, photo attached
John

We all start the same, lol, knowing very little. Then along came digi cameras, taking pics, and it snowballs from there! I started with butterflies, quickly progressed to anything that moves, flies, beetles, wasps, birds, moths. Then I had to get a better camera to get better pics! It opens up a marvellous world of nature and food chains.

It's always sad and distressing to hear of habitat loss and destruction, we can only hope the tide of change turns with communication and education.

That must have been a sight to see all those butterflies together, someone may be able to ID them, I will search around myself. I found a site with a few on yesterday, the one with closed wings may be difficult to find unless we find a pic of one the same.

Your second pic is White Peacock (Anartia jatrophae),

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anartia_jatrophae

We have an entry here on DG if you would like to upload it,

http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/go/196/

Your first seemed to fit the Owl butterlies, found they are Caligo species and have come across one with striped eyes!

Caligo idomeneus

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=4038347

Caligo idomeneus looks very close but I'm not sure we are quite there,

http://www.learnaboutbutterflies.com/Andes%20-%20Caligo%20idomeneus.htm

Having trouble finding which species, here's a list of Caligo with locations but all don't have pics, so will post this then google!


http://www.funet.fi/pub/sci/bio/life/insecta/lepidoptera/ditrysia/papilionoidea/nymphalidae/morphinae/caligo/index.html

Tamarind Owl (Opsiphanes tamarindi) could be the first one,

http://ihc.neotropicalbutterflies.com/Site%20Revision/Pages/Nymphalidae_Pages/Brassolinae/Owl_Pages/Opsiphanes_tamarindi.html

More thumbnails with some similar but not quite as close,

http://ihc.neotropicalbutterflies.com/Site%20Revision/Pages/Nymphalidae_Pages/Nymphalid_Thumbnail_Pages/Brassolinae_morphinae%20Thumbnails.html


It's from Mexico to Panama,

http://www.funet.fi/pub/sci/bio/life/insecta/lepidoptera/ditrysia/papilionoidea/nymphalidae/morphinae/opsiphanes/index.html

Th brown colour might suggest the species name also.

http://www.plantcultures.org/plants/tamarind_landing.html