The Hackberry Emperor is a North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

n butterfly

Butterfly

A butterfly is a mainly day-flying insect of the order Lepidoptera, which includes the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, the butterfly's life cycle consists of four parts: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured...

 that belongs to the family of brushfooted butterflies, Nymphalidae

Nymphalidae

The Nymphalidae is a family of about 5,000 species of butterflies which are distributed throughout most of the world. These are usually medium sized to large butterflies. Most species have a reduced pair of forelegs and many hold their colourful wings flat when resting. They are also called...

.

Description

The upper side of the wings is mostly gray-brown or orange-brown. The fore wing subterminal area has one or two eyespots

Eyespot (mimicry)

An eyespot is an eye-like marking. They are found on butterflies, reptiles, birds and fish. In members of the Felidae family , the white circular markings on the backs of the ears are termed ocelli, and they are functionally similar to eyespots in other animals.Eyespots may be a form of...

, sometimes with blue centers. The underside of the wings is either tan or light gray-brown. The hind wings have a row of black, yellow-ringed, eyespots centered in blue.

Habitat

The Hackberry Emperor may be seen near woodland edges, near creeks, around buildings, and around damp, muddy spots.

Food Plants

The adults do not visit flowers, but feed on rotting fruit, tree sap, dung, and animal carcasses.

Life cycle

Males perch to await females. The pale green eggs are laid in clusters on the host plant. Young larvae feed communally. The thorny headed larva is bright grass green, with yellow and chartreuse stripes. It has two green tails projecting from the rear. The sharply horned chrysalis is a bluish green color. The Hackberry Emperor overwinters as a half grown larva.

External links

• http://www.carolinanature.com/butterflies/hackberryemperor.html
• http://www.enature.com/flashcard/show_flash_card.asp?recordNumber=BU0192
• http://www.wisconsinbutterflies.org/butterflies/species/195
• hackberry emperor on the UF
  University of Florida
  The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
  
   / IFAS
  Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences
  The University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences is a federal-state-county partnership dedicated to developing knowledge in agriculture, human and natural resources, and the life sciences, and enhancing and sustaining the quality of human life by making that information...
  
  Featured Creatures Web site
• Hackberry Emperor, Butterflies of Canada