Junonia coenia

Junonia coenia

Coenia Junonia ( Precis coenia Syn ), sometimes called the Buckeye Butterfly, is a butterfly ( butterfly ) of the family Nymphalidae ( Nymphalidae ).

Description

Butterfly

The wingspan of the butterfly is 45 to 70 millimeters, the females are larger than males. The base color is ocher or light brown. On the fore wings is a very small, bluish- cored eye spot located close to the apex and a large, dark eye spot near the Tornus. This is surrounded by a light brown ring and shows a small bright blue spot in the center. The area around this eye-spot is whitish to pale yellow-brown and extends to the front edge. In the middle cell ( Diskoidalzelle ) two elongated, reddish, black outlined stains lift off. On the hind wings two ocelli are close to be seen on the outer edge, the rear is slightly smaller. Outwardly this from an orange colored binding are limited. At the hem there are brown, slightly wavy lines. On the drawing poor, brown wing underside of the large ocellus of the fore wings shining through clearly dark.

Egg, caterpillar, pupa

The dark green egg has bright stripes and is deposited singly or in small groups on the food plant. The caterpillars are blackish and provided on each segment with whitish and orange stripes. They have on the whole body to numerous fine white spots and black spines. The bright, cream-colored Stürzpuppe shows some reddish brown drawing elements.

Similar Species

• Junonia evarete
• Junonia genoveva

Distribution and occurrence

The range of the species includes southern United States, with an isolated occurrence in California, as well as Mexico, Cuba, the Bahamas and Bermuda. From Junonia coenia several mass migrations are known. The endemic subspecies Junonia coenia bergi Bermuda descended from migrating butterflies. From June to October, the moths migrate into the central and northern U.S. states and to the south of Canada. They colonize preferably open terrain.

Way of life

The moths fly in Florida, Texas and California in several generations throughout the year. In flight they often slide between the wing beats. Visit flowers to suck nectar and moist soil sites to accommodate minerals. Sitting on the floor basking with open wings and thus show clearly their ocelli. Only in extreme heat they close their wings. In the wild, the moths live for about 10 days under laboratory conditions up to a month. The caterpillars live in a variety of different plants, these include plantain family ( Plantaginaceae ), figwort family ( Scrophulariaceae ), verbena family ( Verbenaceae ) and Acanthus ( Acanthaceae ). These plants often contain toxic iridoids, which however can not be in both the caterpillar and the pupa, in the edible butterflies, prove.

Denso virus

Junonia Junonia coenia gave the virus coenia Denso JcDNV virus of the genus Denso virus its name. Besides Junonia coenia it also affects many other insects and is thus responsible for gene exchange across species.