Buckeye-Like Butterflies of Trinidad and Tobago

This is a Black Mangrove Buckeye butterfly, also known as a Caribbean Buckeye.

Unlike common Buckeye butterflies, the light coloring on the wing doesn't extend around the large eye-spot.

They're pretty common, and distinguished by their brown color, the eye spots at the back and the orange zig-zags or epaulettes at the front of the wing.

If you want to see a better shot of a Caribbean Buckeye, look on the Guatemalan Insects page.

I have a feeling that this is a Dark Buckeye butterfly, Junonia nigrosuffusa.

This is the most battered butterfly I've ever seen.

Most butterflies only live a few weeks, some don't even eat after leaving the chrysalis.

The ones which migrate long distances, like Monarchs, can become very tatty.

OK, this butterfly, photographed at the Point a Pierre Wildfowl Trust, is mostly brown, and it has the orange epaulettes, but that's where the similarities to the Buckeye end.

There are no eye spots (though if you look long enough you can almost see an animal's face with "eyes" on either side of the body).   The shape is also different from a Buckeye, its extended wings at the back are almost getting it into swallowtail territory.

This is a White Peacock butterfly which I photographed one morning on Tobago while taking a short stroll from my hotel in Crown Point.

This is a good illustration of why you should always use a flash except in the brightest sunlight - the photo would be much better without the light and shadow, and a flash would allow more of the butterfly to be in focus.

The White Peacock has a shape like a Buckeye, and it has epaulettes, but the epaulettes are grey instead of orange.