Caligo illioneus, common name Illioneus Giant Owl, is a owl butterfly

Owl butterfly

Butterflies in the genus Caligo are commonly called owl butterflies, after their huge eyespots, which resemble owls' eyes. They are found in the rainforests and secondary forests of Mexico, Central and South America....

 belonging to the nymphalid

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...

 family, Morphinae

Morphinae

Morphinae is a subfamily of Nymphalidae butterflies that includes the morphos, the owl butterflies and related lineages. It is either considered a sister group of the Satyrinae, or disassembled and included therein.- Systematics :...

 subfamily, tribe Brassolini

Brassolini

Brassolini is a tribe usually placed in the brush-footed butterfly subfamily Morphinae, which is often included in the Satyrinae as a tribe Morphini. If this is accepted, the Brassolini become the sister tribe of the Morphini among the Satyrinae. Formerly, they were treated as an independent family...

.

Etymology

The genus Latin name Caligo means darkness and may possibly refer to the active periods, as these butterflies preferentially fly in dusk. The species name Illioneus derives from Ilionesus, a Trojan survivor companion of Aeneas

Aeneas

Aeneas , in Greco-Roman mythology, was a Trojan hero, the son of the prince Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite. His father was the second cousin of King Priam of Troy, making Aeneas Priam's second cousin, once removed. The journey of Aeneas from Troy , which led to the founding a hamlet south of...

 in the Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 epic poem

Epic poetry

An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...

 Aeneid

Aeneid

The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is composed of roughly 10,000 lines in dactylic hexameter...

, written by Virgil

Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...

.

Description

Caligo illioneus has a wingspan reaching about 12–15 cm (4.7–5.9 ). In this large owl butterfly

Owl butterfly

Butterflies in the genus Caligo are commonly called owl butterflies, after their huge eyespots, which resemble owls' eyes. They are found in the rainforests and secondary forests of Mexico, Central and South America....

 the dorsal sides of the wings vary from light brilliant blue to purplish with dark brown edges, while the undersides have a highly cryptic

Crypsis

In ecology, crypsis is the ability of an organism to avoid observation or detection by other organisms. It may be either a predation strategy or an antipredator adaptation, and methods include camouflage, nocturnality, subterranean lifestyle, transparency, and mimicry...

 dull brown color, with huge yellow-rimmed eyespots resembling to the eyes of an owl.

In the early stage the caterpillars are greenish with yellow stripes along the body, about 10 centimetres (3.9 in)long. Later they are light brown with dark brown longitudinal stripes, about 12 centimetres (4.7 in) long. The caterpillars grow on banana plants, causing the destruction of large areas of banana plantations, while the adults mainly feed on the juices of fermenting fruits.

Distribution

The species is native to Costa Rica and it is widespread in most of South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

, particularly in Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

, Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

, Costa Rica

Costa Rica

Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....

, Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

, Guyana

Guyana

Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...

, Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

 and Venezuela

Venezuela

Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

.

Habitat

This owl butterfly

Owl butterfly

Butterflies in the genus Caligo are commonly called owl butterflies, after their huge eyespots, which resemble owls' eyes. They are found in the rainforests and secondary forests of Mexico, Central and South America....

  lives in South American rainforest

Rainforest

Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...

s and secondary forest

Secondary forest

A secondary forest is a forest or woodland area which has re-grown after a major disturbance such as fire, insect infestation, timber harvest or windthrow, until a long enough period has passed so that the effects of the disturbance are no longer evident...

s.

Subspecies

• Caligo illioneus illioneus (Surinam, Venezuela, Trinidad)
• Caligo illioneus oberon Butler, 1870 (Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia)
• Caligo illioneus pampeiro Fruhstorfer, 1904 (Paraguay)
• Caligo illioneus pheidriades Fruhstorfer, 1912 (Bolivia)
• Caligo illioneus praxsiodus Fruhstorfer, 1912 (Peru)

External links

• Lepidoptera