The Buckeye butterfly is a brownish colored butterfly that is of medium size and has interesting eye spots in orange on his wings. He has a wingspan of 1 5/8 to 2 3/4" at the markings are quite interesting with one eye on the front wing and two on the back wings.

Male buckeyes can be seen on the low plants and patrolling their territory during the day. They prefer to eat chicory, astor, peppermint and gum weed. The females lay their eggs underneath leaves and the eggs produced solitary caterpillars. Since caterpillars like to eat snapdragon, and plants from the acanthus family this is where the eggs are laid.

You can find the Buckeye butterfly in the southern United States as well as Bermuda, Mexico and Cuba. In the late spring and summer, the adults will migrate as far north as Southern Canada and you can find them all over the US.

Although not as striking as the monarch butterfly, nor as well known, the Buckeye is truly a beautiful butterfly in its own right. The contrasting colors of the light and dark oranges on the eye spots accented with magenta is really quite beautiful even though the rest of the butterfly is just a plain brown.

The Buckeye butterfly likes open sunny areas and prefers to be around low vegetation which is where you will most often see him during the day. However, if you do spot a Buckeye butterfly you should consider yourself lucky especially here in the Northeast where they are not often seen.