Common Buckeye
I got a pretty good picture of this Common Buckeye last September. Depending on the year, I see these butterflies somewhere between "wow I haven't seen a Common Buckeye in a while" and "huh there's another Common Buckeye". I think I see them the most on sunny, grassy trails. Because they seem to like this habitat, I sometimes find myself inadvertently herding them up the trail; as I get closer, they fly further up the trail to get away from me. (This can happen with other butterflies and birds too.) These butterflies have very prominent eyespots, including 1 very large pair on the top of their wings. It's not completely understood why they have eyespots. Generally they make a butterfly more conspicuous, which potentially makes it easier for predators to find them. Some theories: The classic explanation is that a predator sees the eyespots and mistakenly believes they're seeing the face of a much larger animal, causing the predator to break off its ...