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Yellow-edged Giant Owl

Caligo atreus

Photo by sttweets
Published on Project Noah
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52.3663, 4.91665

Field Notes

Description:

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.
Owl butterflies are very large, 65–200 millimetres (2.6–7.9 in), and fly only a few metres at a time, so avian predators have little difficulty in following them to their settling place. However, the butterflies preferentially fly in dusk, when few avian predators are around. The Latin name may possibly refer to their active periods. Caligo means darkness.

Habitat:

Spotted in the Amsterdam Zoo

Species ID Suggestions

Yellow-edged Giant Owl

Caligo atreus

Comments (2)

This whitish/creamy band is quite unique for Atreus. Eurilochus has no such creamy band.

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