Common Buckeye butterflies, JUNONIA COENIA, are
widespread across most of North America south of the
Canadian taiga, and south all the way through Mexico
and Central America into Columbia. Their wings' large
"eyes" and two orange "corporal stripes" make them
easy to identify except in southern Florida and
southern Texas where other buckeye species occur.

Several butterfly species, among them various wood
nymphs, satyrs and ringlets, bear conspicuous eyes on
their wings but none has eyes as eye-catching as the
buckeyes', plus other species lack the corporal
stripes. The individual in the picture looks like an
old veteran because of various gashes in his wing
margins, some suspiciously in the wedge-shaped form of
bird beaks.

In North America Buckeyes tend to migrate northward
early in the year, then in the fall head back
southward. I read that in places such as Cape May, New
Jersey, in October hordes of Buckeyes drift southward
rivaling the migrations of Monarchs "in number and
spectacle." They're permanent residents in the Deep
South, however.

One reason Buckeyes are so common and widespread is
because of their ecological flexibility: Their
caterpillars feed on a variety of plant types,
especially members of such common plant families as
those of the Snapdragon, Plantain and Acanthus
Families.