Butterflies – Common Buckeye – Junonia coenia
Photographed on Merritt Island in Florida while on a cycling tour in 2011.
A member of the brush-footed family of butterflies (Nymphalidae), the medium-sized Buckeye is very wide spread in North America and frequently encountered in all parts of the USA and in most years migrates northward into the southern portions of Ontario and Quebec with the occasional sighting in other provinces. Its range extends south into the norther sections of Columbia and includes Mexico and Central America. The Buckeye is a butterfly of the open meadows rather than the forests. It is a multi-generational butterfly in the south and if its migration reaches Canada in early June and conditions are favorable it is possible that more than one generation will take flight during the summer months with the last of the broods likely migrating southward as the weather cools. Buckeyes do not overwinter in Canada.
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