Under Construction

Caligo Hübner 1819

Owl Butterflies

Andrew V. Z. Brower
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Containing group: Brassolini

Introduction

The "owl butterflies," so called because of the large eyespots on the ventral surface of the hindwing, which when presented upside down with the wings spread suggest the head of an owl. It is not evident that the butterflies exhibit a behavior that would present such a view to potential predators. In "nature" they occur in neotropical forest understorey, where they frequently perch on tree trunks with their wings held together over their backs and heads upwards.

Other Names for Caligo Hübner 1819

References

Casagrande, MM. 2004. Brassolini. In Lamas G ed. 2004. Atlas of Neotropical Lepidoptera. Checklist: Part 4A Hesperioidea - Papiionoidea. Gainesville: Scientific Publishers/Association of Tropical Lepidoptera.

Title Illustrations
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Scientific Name Caligo beltrao
Location captive
Specimen Condition Live Specimen
Source Caligo beltrao
Source Collection Flickr
Image Use creative commons This media file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License - Version 2.0.
Copyright © 2008 Luciano Giussani
Scientific Name Caligo memnon
Location captive at the Butterfly Farm in St. Maarten
Acknowledgements Photograph courtesy InsectImages.org (#1454002)
Specimen Condition Live Specimen
Life Cycle Stage adult
Source Collection Bugwood Network/Forestry Images
Copyright © Jim Occi, BugPics
About This Page


Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, USA

Correspondence regarding this page should be directed to Andrew V. Z. Brower at

Page: Tree of Life Caligo Hübner 1819. Owl Butterflies. Authored by Andrew V. Z. Brower. The TEXT of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License - Version 3.0. Note that images and other media featured on this page are each governed by their own license, and they may or may not be available for reuse. Click on an image or a media link to access the media data window, which provides the relevant licensing information. For the general terms and conditions of ToL material reuse and redistribution, please see the Tree of Life Copyright Policies.

Citing this page:

Brower, Andrew V. Z. 2011. Caligo Hübner 1819. Owl Butterflies. Version 01 May 2011 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Caligo/70752/2011.05.01 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/

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