Common Buckeye Butterfly

Photo taken at Bowman Lake, Fox Island County Park

The Common Buckeye Butterfly (Junonia coenia coenia) is a colorful butterfly in the "brush-foot" family of butterflies sometimes called 4-footed butterflies. Brush-foot butterflies, including Monarch Butterflies, curl their anterior legs tightly against their bodies so that they are all but invisible. These hairy, folded legs give the butterflies the "brush-foot" name. The "eye spots" on their wings are believed to function as deterrents to birds that may want to make a meal out of the Buckeye.  Buckeye butterflies are warm climate insects who move north from the southern states in the summer but are not considered migratory because they do not return south as winter approaches.
Photos by J. Ormiston