The Defenses of Butterflies: Eyespots

Eyespots, sometimes called ocellus, are pigmented spots on a caterpillar, butterfly or moth that look like an eye.

These eyespots can sometimes resemble the eyes of a larger creature and can be quite striking. In the case of the female Io Moth pictured here, her eyespotted hind-wings we kept tucked under her fore wings until I disturbed her. She pulled her forewings forward and showed off the eyespots on her hind wings only after I brushed against the branch where she perched.

The caterpillar of the Spicebush Swallowtail butterfly has curious eyespots on its body that don’t have anything to do with the caterpillar’s real eyes. This species spins a pad of silk onto a leaf and tightens the silk until it rolls the leaf around its body. These leaf shelters help to hide the caterpillars from hungry predators. Anyone that goes looking into rolled leaves will get quite a surprise upon seeing one of these caterpillars. Viewed from head on, they look a great deal like a small snake.

Some eyespots seem to resemble the eyes of large animals but some put eyes in curious locations, such as along the edge of a wing. These spots may help to draw the eyes of a predator to a less important part of the butterfly body. If the edge of a wing is attacked, butterflies can fly on missing a piece of their wing.

View Full Album

Check out this gallery of photographs of eyespots found on Florida moths and butterflies. I have included the Io Moth, Polyphemus Moth, White Peacock, Southern Pearly Eye, Buckeye and Carolina Satyr to show just a few of the ways our Florida bugs show off their eyespots.