Common Buckeye Butterfly - Junonia coenia

by Carol Senske

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Common Buckeye Butterfly - Junonia coenia

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Carol Senske

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Photograph - Photograph

Description

I've taken information from the Wikipedia write up. You can read the unrevised version here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junonia_coenia

The Common Buckeye Butterfly, Junonia coenia, is found in southern Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia and all parts of the United States except the northwest, and is especially common in the south, the California coast, and throughout Central America and Colombia. They love fields, meadows, and waste places where the vegetation is lower and ground shows.

The wing pattern is both pretty eyespots and white bars on the upper wing surface. It could be the eyespots serve to distract predators, especially young birds (the "bird brains"). Buckeyes have quite a few flights throughout the year, mostly migrating northward for the summer. Much of the northern United States is only colonized in the fall from southern populations. Some of the later broods move southwards in the fall. Common Buckeyes exhibit seasonal polyphenism (color differences), the summer version of the butterfly has light yellowish ventral wings and is called "linea". The Fall morph has pink ventral wings, and is called the "rosa" morph.

These pictures were taken last summer (late August in 2012) at the Green Lane Reservoir in East Greenville, Pennsylvania, USA

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July 18th, 2013

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