Appalachian Brown

I believe this is an Appalachian Brown butterfly, though a slightly more northern species, the Eyed Brown, is also a possibility. This identification would have been more reliable if the butterfly had its wings up; they both have a prominent line seen there, but on the Eyed Brown that line is quite a bit more jagged. In this particular picture, the forewing has a couple of very small eyespots on the forewing; in an Eyed Brown all those forewing eyespots should be approximately the same size.

Both these species are in the same genus (Satyrodes), eat basically the same food (sedges) as caterpillars, look similar, and have some range overlap. They're clearly related, which always makes me wonder if they ever hybridize.

One of my guides says they never visit flowers for nectar, mostly drinking sap from trees and maybe drinking fluids from rotting fruit. I tend to wonder whether we've followed these butterflies around long enough and under enough diverse conditions to conclusively say they never pass of a sugary water source, though I'm confident that you shouldn't be looking for these butterflies in a floral meadow.

August 31, 2021 at Washington Valley Park
Photo 167477642, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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