Peacock butterfly Inachis io

Features

It has a characteristic reddish brown wings on which are large, predominantly black and blue colored eyes. With a colorful picture of the upper surface of the wings, the dark underside, which is only slightly black, is in stark contrast. It is quite widespread everywhere, and is one of the most common domestic butterflies.

Species	Insect
Living space	Large caves, Meadow
Size	50-60 mm

Description

The caterpillar develops on the common nettle, a widespread nitrogen plant. It reproduces strongly, in two generations per year. Only in a climatically harsh environment does it have one brood. Butterflies overwinter in dark humid places, e.g. in caves as well as in animal and human habitats. They mate in the spring. The eggs are ribbed and green and hatch from them after two to three weeks. These are then only 3 mm long, greenish white with a large black radiant head. With repeated levitating, they become more grayish-brown, and the plant is prevented by a white cocoon, where the caterpillars live together. In the last stage of levitating, they become dark black and get white spots and long branched dorsal spines. Within 3 to 4 weeks after hatching, they stop feeding, disperse, and find a suitable place to hatch. On the chosen base, the caterpillar spins a small pad in front of it, to which it attaches itself with the last pair of legs and then hangs slightly bent downwards. In this position, they become numb for about two days, after which the caterpillar skin on the back bursts and slowly peeks out of the ever-longer crack on the day of the beetle. He undresses the caterpillar skin by wavy twisting. During the 14 days of dormancy, fundamental changes take place inside the beetle. About a day before the appearance of the butterfly, the wings can already be seen through the translucent shells of the beetle.