I hadn’t seen a Little Wood Satyr butterfly in a couple of years and this one was stunning. It landed on a leaf on the side of the Doane Rock Trail to Coast Guard Beach.
The Little Wood Satyr butterfly lives on woodland edges as well as salt marshes, which explains why we saw it there on that trail.
Gorgeous, isn’t it? I love its markings…
“…studies show that eyespots near the outer margin of the wings, such as those on display in Little Wood-Satyrs, can deflect the attention of predators away from the vulnerable body of the insect, and toward the wing edges. A butterfly can survive with some damage to its outer wing, but it needs an intact body.”
https://the-natural-web.org/2023/06/26/a-modern-day-satyr-little-wood-satyr/