Butterflies with “owl eyes” are well known around the Americas. The evolution of this owl eye is to scare off predators.
While doing research for an upcoming FLAAR report on owls of Mesoamerica I came across this photograph in our ethnozoology photo archive, so I would like to post it now because I noticed the snake-like face (with “reptile scales’ at the top back of it’s wings.
I turned the wing 90 degrees so you could more easily see the two eyes of the snake (and it’s “nose”).
To understand the third eye I would need to find this butterfly again elsewhere and photograph from an extra angle.
This was photographed at Auto Safari Chapin, a park with lots of interesting local plants and insects (plus animals). I was able to identify it as the Yellow-fronted Owl-Butterfly, Caligo telamonius.
There are lots of other butterflies with owl eye tricks on each lower wing. As soon as we return to continue fieldwork in the Caribbean area of the Municipio de Izabal, Guatemala, we will see how many butterflies we can find, photograph, and identify.
