Photos of the peacock butterfly amaze with their beauty. These creatures were created by nature for one thing - so that you could admire them and understand how beautiful and fragile Live nature of our planet!
Among all insects, butterflies are the most beautiful, and it is unlikely that anyone will argue with this. What kind of designs and colors you won’t see on these delicate fragile wings! Has anyone heard of a butterfly called the peacock eye? In our country, this insect can be found quite often. There are night peacock eyes and daytime peacock eyes in nature. This article will focus on the day butterfly. It belongs to the arthropod insects of the order Lepidoptera. The family of which the peacock eye is a representative is called nymphalidae.
Scientific name this butterfly “Inachis io”, but do you know where it came from? IN ancient greek mythology there is the god Inach, the ruler of the ancient Argive kingdom and the patron of the river Inach, who has a daughter named Io. It was in honor of these two mythical gods that the butterfly was named. And the name “peacock eye” comes from the amazing similarity of the patterns on the wings of the insect with the pattern on the feathers of a peacock.
Appearance of a peacock eye
The daytime peacock's eye is a fairly small butterfly. Its wingspan is just over six centimeters. The length of one wing is 3 centimeters. Females of this insect are slightly larger in size than males.
The pattern of the wings is very beautiful: on each of the four wings there is a multi-colored spot, very similar to the patterns of a peacock's tail. The colors in which nature painted the wings of this butterfly are very different. The background of the wings is usually reddish (brown-red or brown-red), and the round spots have several shades: blue, yellowish-white, black, reddish.
Where does the daytime peacock eye live?
The distribution range of this butterfly covers large territory. She lives across most of the continent of Eurasia and Japanese islands. You will not find this insect only in too northern regions and in tropical zones, the peacock eye does not like the tundra and desert. These butterflies live in Germany greatest number. But on the island of Crete and in the north African continent she doesn't exist at all.
Lifestyle of a butterfly
This representative of the nymphalid family chooses forest edges, banks of rivers and other bodies of water, meadows, parks, forests, clearings, ravines, gardens, ravines, places where people live as habitats - this butterfly can be seen almost everywhere. IN mountainous area The peacock's eye can fly at an altitude of up to 2500 meters above sea level! Leads a daily lifestyle.
The daytime peacock eye is a migratory insect; butterflies are capable of long flights. The winter is spent in damp areas with a cool climate.
What does a peacock eye eat?
Everyone knows that the life of a butterfly is divided into several stages, the main ones being the caterpillar and the adult insect. So, the caterpillar’s food includes plants such as: raspberries, hops, nettles, and willow leaves. When the butterfly becomes an adult insect, having passed the pupal stage, it eats only nectar.
daytime relative peacock eye– night peacock eye – as an adult it does not feed at all! They live in ! Why? Because he has enough reserves for his entire life that he accumulated while still in the caterpillar stage. Apparently, the night peacock eye caterpillar is very voracious!
Reproduction
An adult peacock eye lays eggs. One female can lay up to 300 eggs. The eggs are attached to the underside of nettle leaves.
From May to August, the peacock's eye is in the caterpillar stage. The color of the caterpillars is black with white speckles. They live close to each other, and begin to “separate” only when they leave to weave a cocoon.
Nature has many creatures amazing beauty and grace. One of them bright butterfly peacock eye. It is easy to distinguish it from other representatives of the order Lepidoptera by its characteristic pattern. On the wings there are four blue eyes with a dark border. The insect lives throughout Eurasia and is easy to find in early spring in the garden or park. The butterfly feeds on plant nectar and gives preference to buddleia, a shrub with white or lilac fragrant flowers.
Description of the species
The beauty of butterflies invariably attracts the admiring glances of fauna lovers. In the photo is one of amazing creations nature butterfly peacock eye. She is a typical inhabitant of garden plots and forest clearings. Prefers free, well-lit areas rich in flowering vegetation. In dense forests, she runs the risk of damaging her scaly wings on tree branches.
Insect taxonomy:
- family - Nymphalidae;
- genus – Aglais (urticaria);
- species – Inachisio Daytime peacock eye.
The family of nymphalids is characterized by variegated wing colors on the outside and protective colors on the inside. Many of its representatives are inclined to migrate in search of best places nutrition. The genus of wrens is not numerous, it includes only 6-7 species, including the day peacock butterfly.
Information. Story Latin name species associated with Greek mythology. Inachis is the name of the river god Inach, Io is his beautiful daughter.
The peacock eye is not large in size, the length of its front wings is 30 mm, the span is 60-62 mm. The wings are wide, the outer edge with serrations and angular projections. Their main background is reddish-brown or red. A grayish-brown stripe runs along the edges. At the top of the front and rear pairs of wings there is a characteristic pattern in the form of an eye with a blue center. It is surrounded by yellowish, white and black rings. In the description of the peacock butterfly, one should note the protective coloring on the underside of the wings. On dark background light brown sinuous lines create an imitation of a dry leaf.
Interesting fact. The color intensity is affected by the temperature at which the pupa developed.
The head is round, oral apparatus sucking type, with proboscis. The antennae are club-shaped. The eyes are complex, faceted, and shaped like hemispheres. The chest consists of three segments. The front legs are reduced. They are not used when walking; insects move on their middle and hind legs. In the middle of the front shin there is a spur for cleaning the antennae. Sexual dimorphism is manifested in the structure of the antennae and size - females are slightly larger than males.
Appearance of the caterpillar
Butterflies are insects with complete metamorphosis. Their life cycle development has a larval stage called a caterpillar. The appearance of the offspring is impressive; their length reaches 42 mm, and their body is covered with several rows of spines. The color of the caterpillars of the peacock butterfly is black, with white dots scattered throughout the body. Each segment of the body is protected by branched spines. Walking legs are light colored.
Habitat
Butterflies are widespread throughout Europe, Asia and Japan. In the north, the distribution is limited to a latitude of 60°. In Eastern Europe it is found in all countries, with the exception of the far north. You cannot find a peacock's eye on the island of Crete and northern Africa. Insects settle wherever there are flowering plants: in forests, on forest edges and clearings, in ravines, on the banks of reservoirs. In urban areas they appear in parks, squares and gardens. Butterflies live in the mountains, climbing to heights of up to 2500 km above sea level.
Information. The place where the largest concentration of peacock butterflies is located is Germany.
Lifestyle
The main method of movement of butterflies is flight. It can be active with flapping wings or passive - gliding. Sometimes insects make long flights in search of food. What does the peacock butterfly eat? Like most lepidopterans, it sucks nectar from flowers. Among the insect's taste preferences:
- dandelions;
- marigold;
- elder;
- clover;
- marjoram;
- buddleya.
Peacock's eye is a diurnal butterfly that is active during daylight hours. In the middle latitudes, one generation is replaced per year; in the south, two generations manage to develop. The first generation of adults appears in June-July, the second in August-September. How long does a peacock butterfly live? Among insects, she is a long-liver - her life span is almost a year. The butterfly spends a significant part of the cycle in a state of suspended animation or hibernation.
Butterfly wintering
One of the notable features of the butterfly is its wintering in the adult state. With the onset of cold weather, representatives of the second generation look for reliable shelters for the cold season. They hide in forest floor, under the bark of trees, in the cracks of outbuildings, in attics. By folding their wings, insects fall into suspended animation, their life processes slow down. In winter, butterflies find themselves defenseless against attacks from predators; if there is insufficient accumulation of nutrients, they can die of starvation. Premature rise in temperature is dangerous. During the thaw, the peacock's eye wakes up and leaves its shelter. The second time it is more difficult for the insect to settle down for the winter.
Defense mechanism
Butterflies have a lot natural enemies, these include birds, rodents, reptiles, large insects. To frighten the enemy, a peacock eye appeared unusual colors. When attacked by birds, the butterfly suddenly opens its wings. The appearance of widely spaced eyes disorients the predator, and in some cases forces it to retreat. Even a short delay is enough for an insect to escape from the enemy.
Reproduction
Butterflies exhibit complex forms of courtship in the form of flights and mating dances. Males divide the territory into separate areas, where they wait for incoming females. After wintering, butterflies appear in early spring, and they are the ones who produce the first generation. The search for partners is facilitated by the distribution of pheromones. After fertilization, the female lays from 100 to 300 eggs per reverse side leaves of forage plants. Most often it is nettle. Laying begins in early May. The embryo matures for one to two weeks, then the caterpillar appears.
Information. Young larvae live in large groups, on one nettle bush there can be up to 150 voracious individuals.
Caterpillars are equipped with gnawing type mouthparts; they feed day and night with short rest breaks. At the first instar, the length of the larvae is about 2 mm, in the second it is already 8 mm. They grow quickly, eating all the leaves on the plant. In addition to nettles, insects settle on raspberries, hops, willow or birch leaves. The number of days between molts varies; in total, caterpillars go through five instars. The larval stage takes about a month. Before pupation, the caterpillars crawl in different directions.
The larvae have their own defense mechanisms. When attacked by predators, they take a threatening pose and begin to simultaneously move in different directions. This scares off the attacker. In addition, the caterpillars secrete an unpleasant green liquid and can curl up into a ball and fall to the ground. The angular, grey-green or brownish-gold colored pupa can be seen on walls, branches or stems. The color depends on the location chosen for pupation. This stage depends on the temperature environment lasts 2-3 weeks.
The length of the pupa is 25-28 mm, it is formed upside down. The rudiments of wings, proboscis, and abdomen are visible. The first generation of butterflies appears at the end of June. The cocoon ruptures along the head and the leading edge of the wings.
Related species of butterflies
Butterflies of the peacock-eye family have similar wing colors and eye patterns. These are large insects with a wingspan of 12-15 cm. They are active in the dark. Distinctive feature family - reduced oral apparatus. Insects do not feed at the adult stage. They live off the nutrients accumulated by the caterpillar.
Great night peacock eye
Peacock-eye pear or Saturnia is a butterfly common in the South and Central Europe, in the Caucasus and Asia Minor. The wingspan is up to 155-160 mm, one wing is 55-70 mm. This is the largest nocturnal butterfly in Russia and Europe. At dusk or taken for bats. Females are larger than males, they have short comb-like antennae, and the proboscis is underdeveloped. The main color of the wings is grayish-brown. There is a black stripe at the base, the edges of the front and rear pairs have a light border. Almost in the middle of each wing there is a visible ocellus with a dark center and a light ring.
The summer time of the night peacock butterfly is May-June. This is a heat-loving species that does not tolerate frost. They can be found in North Africa, Turkey, the Mediterranean, southern Europe, the Caucasus, Iran, and Syria. Their habitats are forests and parks with a lot of bushes. Females are sedentary, males are much more active, flying even during the day. But females live almost 3 times longer - 20 days versus 8. The favorite food tree of Saturnia caterpillars is pear. But they happily feed on cherries, apples, plums, quinces, almonds, and maples. The caterpillar grows up to 10 cm and changes color several times during its life. The large peacock eye produces one generation per year; the pupa goes to winter.
Attention. The pear peacock eye is listed in the Red Book of Ukraine. In Russia it is protected in the Voronezh, Rostov and Belgorod regions.
Lesser night peacock
The small peacock eye also belongs to the genus Saturnia. Unlike the great peacock's eye, it is found throughout the Palearctic. Wingspan up to 60 mm. The male has reddish-gray forewings and orange hindwings. Females have a more modest coloration of light gray. The pattern is represented by wavy lines and bands of dark brown and yellowish color. Each wing has an ocellus - the middle is dark, the border is black and light.
Adults do not feed and live 3-4 weeks. Caterpillars live on thorns, raspberries, blackberries, willows, birches, and heather. The larvae have to stock up on food for the pupa and butterfly. The insect overwinters at the pupal stage, and begins to fly in April-May.
How to care for a peacock butterfly
Some wildlife lovers bring insects home. Someone wants to watch the changing stages of their development or just have a piece of beauty at home. It's interesting to grow a butterfly from a caterpillar. It is placed in a container or jar and fed with leaves. When the time comes to pupate, you will need soil. The newly born individual will need time to spread its wings. What to feed a peacock butterfly at home? The insects' diet includes flower nectar and fruit juice. In the warm season, you can bring fresh flowers picked from the area every day.
In winter, it will not be possible to provide the butterfly with nectar, and in a warm apartment it will not hibernate. Flower nectar is an excellent substitute for honey solution. Natural product diluted with water in a ratio of 1:10. The insect is taken by the body and placed on the edge of a saucer with syrup. The menu includes fresh fruit. An orange, a ripe pear, a banana are cut into pieces and offered to the pet. You will need 1-2 feedings per day. Peacock's eye can be forced into suspended animation. Required Plastic container with holes for ventilation. In such a house, the insect is taken out to the loggia, where it is dry and cool.
The average lifespan of a peacock butterfly is 3-6 months, with good care she will delight you with her beauty for a long time. If you plant nettles on your property, there is a real chance of seeing fluttering butterflies every day.
Good afternoon, young readers and adult parents! If the school for children gave homework– prepare a report about the life of insects, then here you go. Today we have collected material about one of the the most beautiful butterflies, living in Russia, pleasing our eyes every year when spring comes. The Peacock Butterfly is the subject of a school message about the world of insects.
Lesson plan:
What does the peacock have to do with it?
If you now say that you have never met this butterfly, then I assure you, you are mistaken! You've certainly seen this bright orange miracle swinging on yellow flowers coltsfoot. It is this beauty in the forefront, among other insects, that brings summer on its wings, which is approaching by leaps and bounds.
Do you remember that you often met this? Yes, sure! It is everywhere: in parks, and in gardens, and in the forest and in the vegetable garden. It’s just that not everyone knows that it’s called that. So what does the bushy-tailed peacock have to do with it then? Everything ingenious is simple.
Has anyone looked at a peacock feather? Its tip is topped with a beautiful iridescent blue-red-yellow-orange-green spot called the eye.
So, our butterfly’s wings were also decorated with spots, similar in description and appearance to those of a peacock. That's why they called her that.
Moreover, flyers come in not only orange shades. Cherry-red clothes with eyes look especially impressive.
Do you know that?! The science that studies the life of butterflies is called lepidopterology.
A little more “fluttering” details
Well, we already understand that it is a butterfly. What does she look like and what does she eat?
Let's start with the fact that our beauty is a representative arthropod insects from Lepidoptera order. The family it belongs to is called nymphalidae.
In nature, there is a daytime peacock eye and a nighttime peacock eye, which, by the way, already belongs to the peacock eye family. These species differ, of course, in their lifestyle and size.
It is not difficult to see the lover of the day; she feeds on nectar, collecting it from flowers during daylight hours, and her caterpillar happily eats leaves and young shoots of all kinds of plants.
For painting day butterfly often influenced by the cold and heat that affected the caterpillar until it became a pupa. More often it is red-brown and red-brown, with four blue eyes on its wings.
The size of an insect is determined by its wingspan. For daytime it is about 55 millimeters for “boys” and about 60 millimeters for “girls”.
The nocturnal peacock eye is not so easy to find, since this butterfly is a lover of darkness. Its wingspan is 15 centimeters or more, so these insects are often confused with birds and bats.
How to feed such a giantess and where to get so much nectar? The most interesting thing is that the night watchman does not need food. Everything that she accumulated while she was growing in the state of a caterpillar serves as her food throughout her short life.
Do you know that?! There are about a thousand species of peacock eyes on the planet, among which there is a giant called “atlas”. Its wingspan is 24 centimeters! Meet big miracle You can experience nature by going on a trip to the Asian tropics and subtropics.
How much life is devoted to beauty and where to look for it?
By the way, do you know how long a butterfly lives? Unfortunately, nature did not reward this most beautiful miracle with longevity. On average, all butterflies live about two days. There are, however, those that, after wintering, continue to please the eye for up to 10 months. Our beauty is one of these few long-livers.
The generation of butterflies that appears in the spring flies until autumn, then overwinters in hollows and bark of trees, in the attics of houses or barns, in forest and steppe litters and comes to life again until mid-summer. Very often they are found in the middle of the window frames, where she went to sleep for the winter. To our surprise, such a household comes to life when the weather warms up and begins to take over the apartment space.
As we have already noted, the daytime peacock’s eye can be seen almost throughout Russia. The habitat of these butterflies is multifaceted - the entire territory of Eastern Europe, except only in the regions of the far north and deserts. There are a lot of them in Germany, but on the island of Crete and the African north it is difficult to find.
Bright flyers with eyes on their wings have chosen meadows and steppes, forest edges and gardens, ravines and park areas. Even in the mountains at a level of up to 2.5 kilometers you can meet them.
Lesser night peacock eye - hero of the Red Books of Moscow, Irkutsk and Chelyabinsk region, and the large nocturnal one is listed in the Red Book of the Voronezh Territory.
Do you know that? Each butterfly beats its wings up to 300 times per minute and folds them into a book when resting. But he never sleeps!
That's all for today. It's March, which means that orange beauties will soon bring the long-awaited summer on wings with peacock eyes!
And I talked about how to make rainbow plasticine butterflies with your own hands.
Good luck in your studies!
For children and schoolchildren it is presented in this article. The description will help you write a report about the peacock butterfly.
Peacock butterfly description
Each of us has seen a peacock butterfly. She is famous and ordinary people, and collectors. The bright color immediately catches the eye. It is distributed throughout Europe and Asia. They can be found anywhere, but the peacock eye is used to wintering in houses or tree hollows, where it is warm and cozy. These butterflies can be seen with the arrival of warmer weather in parks, meadows, gardens and so on.
The size of the peacock eye is 5 cm. It is distinguished by a bright pattern that resembles an eye, on a red and sometimes brown background. It looks very impressive with closed wings - the butterfly then resembles a beautiful autumn fallen leaf. But the eye-shaped spots are similar to the spots in the tail feathers of a peacock. That is why the peacock eye got its name. When a butterfly is frightened by predators and it senses danger, these same “eyes” come into play - they unfold their wings and even make hissing sounds. Potential predators will then think a couple of times whether they should eat this creature that is incomprehensible to them.
After overwintering, the peacock eye lays its eggs in early spring. Moreover, in large quantities– up to 500 at a time. The caterpillars hatched after a week are black in color with 6 pairs of hairy teeth and white dots in each segment. During this period they feed on nettles and hops. Adult butterflies feed on nectar from flowering plants.
Description of the peacock butterfly
One of the most unusual butterflies is the peacock eye. It is called so because there are four spots on its wings. These spots are very similar to eyes. They're even tinted blue like the iris of a real eye. And also - exactly like the “eye” on the tail of a peacock. When the “peacock eye” opens its wings, it seems as if it is looking at you intently.
The peacock eye is one of the brightest European butterflies, getting its name from the characteristic eye spots on its wings. This species belongs to the nymphalidae family and is related to the more modest checkerworts, pearlworts and wrens. Often this type called the day peacock's eye to distinguish it from several species of peacock butterflies, which are sometimes also called "peacock's eye". To avoid confusion, this article will specifically describe the daytime peacock eye, and the remaining species will be discussed in the article on peacock eyes.
Peacock's eye, or daytime peacock's eye (Inachis io).
The peacock eye is a medium-sized butterfly, with a wingspan of 45-55 mm for males and 50-62 mm for females. The body of the peacock eye is black, the upper side is covered with reddish fluff, and the antennae are club-shaped. The shape of the wings is quite simple, with shallow cutouts along the edges. The main color of the upper side of the wings is red; narrow gray-pockmarked stripes of black spots run along the anterior edge of the fore wings. The outer edge of both pairs of wings, as well as the posterior edge of the hind wings, have a gray edge; large blue-blue spots are present on all four wings.
The underside of the wings of the peacock's eye looks gloomy - it is black-brown with small gray ripples.
Although the peacock eye is considered a typical inhabitant of Europe, the range of this species is very wide. This butterfly is found throughout temperate and partly subtropical zone Eurasia and the Japanese Islands. The peacock eye inhabits open biotopes - meadows, wastelands, steppes, forest edges, gardens, parks, ravines; in the mountains it is found at an altitude of up to 2500 meters. The peacock's eye is not found in dense forests and deserts; it is also absent in polar regions (tundra). These butterflies fly with early spring to October, and in warm subtropics they can be found even during winter thaws. IN northern regions The peacock eye manages to produce one generation per summer, in the southern ones - two. These butterflies overwinter in the imago phase ( adult), in the fall, butterflies hide in bark crevices, forest and steppe litter. The lifespan of each individual is several months.
Peacock's eye eggs on the underside of a leaf.
Peacock eye caterpillars feeding various plants, but they especially love nettles, raspberries, and hops; they are less common on willow and hemp. But adult butterflies most like to drink the nectar of thistle, burdock, scabiosa, thyme, they can visit various garden flowers, and often sit on wet ground, bark with flowing plant juice.
Peacock eye caterpillars.
The breeding season begins early; overwintered butterflies lay eggs in late April-May. The female lays small light green eggs on the underside of leaves in groups of 100-300 pieces. The caterpillars are black in color with thin projections; often caterpillars of the same brood stick together and fly around the stems with silky threads, creating a bag-like cocoon. Caterpillars of the spring generation are found in May-June, caterpillars of the summer generation - in late July-early August. The pupae are attached to plant stems with their heads down, depending on which stem the pupa is attached to (a green twig or a dry woody one), it can be greenish-gray or brown. The pupa looks spiny and develops in 1-2 weeks.
Peacock's eye on a sedum inflorescence.
The peacock eye is a fairly common butterfly in places where people do not interfere with natural biosystems. In cultivated landscapes, the peacock's eye is less common because its caterpillars feed on low-value plants, which people try to get rid of. Despite the fairly high number of this butterfly in protected and untouched places, it still needs protection. To increase the number of peacock eyes, it is enough to leave untouched thickets of burdock and nettle in meadows and fieldsides (especially since these plants do not infest crops), and not destroy its caterpillars (although they look unattractive). In this case, beautiful butterflies will often delight our eyes.
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