The common buckeye butterfly

A closeup of a common buckeye butterfly.

 Common buckeye butterflies love the sunshine. Their range covers most of North America where they spend much of their time sunbathing in open fields, along trails, on grassy dunes, disturbed areas and on the ground. The fall migrations of this stunning butterfly on the Atlantic Coast can often be spectacular in numbers. They are a few inches across when they open their wings. They sip on many types of flowers and when they open their wings, they display wonderful eyespots, or buckeyes because the spots look like the spots on buckeye nuts. These eyespots can scare away predators, who think they’re being sized up for a meal. Their front legs are hairy and smaller than usual, so they are known as brush-footed butterflies. Males are feisty and will scare off others. After the males mate with the females they leave their eggs on plaintain, a common lawn plant, and snapdragon plants. Their caterpillars are loners and not aggressive, even with other caterpillars. Adults like the nectars of mints, aster and goldenrods. See them in the heat and sunshine of summer. Stare into those beautiful eyespots and think of how lucky you are.

Watch on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB87mkm8Vvg