Reference photo of a pinned Caligo eurilochus specimen, upper side

Reference photo

Photo: Digital Image: Yale Peabody Museum; photo by Paul Shamble 2011 · Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History (Entomology) · CC0 1.0 (cropped and resized). Not the specimen in Lucy’s drawer.

Tray 31 of 39

Caligo eurilochus

(Cramer, [1775])

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Your framed specimen is a different individual of the same species, chosen and mounted by Lucy.

  • Nymphalidae
  • Butterfly
For young explorers

It has big spots on its wings that look like owl eyes.

Like other owl butterflies, it has big eye-like spots under its hindwings, feeds on rotting fruit, and is most active at twilight.

Catalog label
Family
Nymphalidae
Subfamily
Morphinae
Tribe
Brassolini
Where it lives
Mexico, Amazon Basin.

From the catalog of Lucy Garcia Salik, PhD. A mounted specimen from a licensed supplier.

Research notes

From published sources, not from Lucy’s catalog. Each note lists where it came from.

Where it lives

Museum sources describe this species as one of the owl butterflies that come from Central and South America. Several subspecies have been named, and the specimens they were described from came from places including Suriname, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Brazil and Bolivia. Suriname is the place the species itself was described from.

Habitat

Owl butterflies as a group are described as forest butterflies. In the daytime this species and its close relatives tend to stay in the shade under trees, and they become active when the light is low.

How the adults behave

Adults do most of their flying in the dim light around dawn and dusk. They spend much of the day resting in shade, but sometimes come out at midday to feed on overripe, rotting fruit. Their flight is slow and floppy, a bit like a bat's. Big butterflies that fly slowly are easy for predators to spot. The eye-like spots may make an attacker hesitate, or draw its strike away from the butterfly's body so the butterfly has time to get away. Males of owl butterflies have been described chasing one another as evening comes.

For grown-⁠ups

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