northeast-flora-and-fauna

For a primarily brown butterfly, the Common Wood-Nymph is frequently identifiable at a glance. That's because in my area they typically have a yellow patch on the forewings with a pair of eyespots on them. I haven't spotted variations of this butterfly around here, but they do exist: Sometimes the yellow patch is instead a tan color that's lighter than the rest of the wing, but far less eye-catching. Sometimes instead of a yellow patch, the eyespots are in a round yellow ring instead. This field mark is a little harder to spot for a distance but is pretty distinctive. If you see it, you'll probably be able to ID it. Sometimes there is no patch, though the eyepatch itself is still there. August 3, 2021 at Washington Valley Park Photo 149027513, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

This was one of the first pictures I got this year of the Common Wood-Nymph , and probably the first one I've got of a pair mating. They're also a butterfly I've shown you before . The Common Wood-Nymph is considered one of the satyr butterflies . Lepidopterology is a field of study where you can state that a " nymph is a satyr " without people thinking you don't understand classical mythology. In my area they are pretty distinctive; the eye spots on a yellow patch are unique around here. Apparently in some areas they have the same eye spots and the same overall gray, but lack the yellow patch, making them harder to ID at a glance. July 22, 2021 at Fairview Farm Photo 148400547, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Meet a Common Wood-nymph Butterfly . Though they're less flamboyant than many others, these guys are also in the large brush-footed family of butterflies. In my area they tend to be pretty easy to identify. They're smallish brown with yellow patches where you can usually see at least one of a pair of dark eyespots. In a spreadwing view like below, you can see the pair of eyespots easily, but when their wings are up you may only see the frontmost spot. When I saw my first Common Wood-nymphs, I was excited to have found a butterfly that I hadn't noticed before. But when I found it in my field guides, I realized that this wasn't a big/interesting discovery after all; they described this species as "common and widespread". (Unless you're an expert already, a lot of your discoveries are likely to be plants/animals that are among the most common.) It sounds like they're a harder ID in some areas of the country where the yellow patch doesn't happen, thou...