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Also known as the Cocoa Mort Bleu butterfly.
Owl butterflies are large, 65–200 mm (2.6–7.9 in), but fly only a few meters at a time, so avian predators have little difficulty in following them to their landing place. However, the butterflies typically fly in dusk, when few avian predators are around.
Owl butterflies, the genus Caligo, are known for their huge eyespots, which resemble owls' eyes.The eye pattern is a generalized form of mimicry. It is known that many small animals hesitate to go near patterns resembling eyes with a light-colored iris and a large pupil, which matches the appearance of the eyes of many predators that hunt by sight.
Avg. Wingspan: 20 cm / 7.87 "
Diet: adult butterflies are happy feeding in groups and they enjoy the juices of fermenting fruit, typically banana, pineapple and mango. In the forest they also feed on the dung of large mammals, and make a nuisance of themselves on sugar cane plantations.
* There are currently about twenty species of owl butterflies, found exclusively in Central and South America.
Kingdom: Animalia, Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta, Order: Lepidoptera
* Being Brush-footed butterflies, Great Owls have a short pair of fore legs that are used to taste food, and two pairs of longer rear legs that are used for propulsion.
The single biggest threat to butterfly survival is habitat destruction!!
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