Day Peacock Butterfly

• Wingspan: These butterflies have a wingspan of 50 to 60 millimeters.
• Life expectancy: As adult butterflies of the overwintering generation, these insects can live to be 10 to 11 months old, which is a remarkable age for butterflies.
• Special feature: Unlike many other butterfly species, this butterfly overwinters as an adult rather than as a pupa.

The peacock butterfly has four distinctive, iridescent eye spots (blue, black, yellow, and white) on the upper surface of its reddish-brown wings, which resemble the eye spots on a peacock's feather and are intended to deter predators.

The undersides of the wings, on the other hand, are mottled dark brown to blackish brown and textured. When the butterfly folds its wings together, it looks like a dry, withered leaf and is perfectly camouflaged. The caterpillars are black, covered with numerous small white spots, and have black spines.

With its wings spread, the peacock butterfly is almost unmistakable due to its distinctive eye spots. However, at first glance, when its wings are closed, it can be confused with other large white butterflies that have dark undersides, such as the Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae) or the C-spotted White (Polygonia c-album), whose wing undersides also feature leaf-like camouflage markings.

Adult butterflies feed on the nectar of numerous plants (such as various species of clover, thistles, or willow catkins in early spring, and, in the garden, also on butterfly bush) as well as on windfall fruit and other plant sap in the fall.

The caterpillars, on the other hand, are highly specialized and feed almost exclusively on the leaves of the stinging nettle (Urtica dioica).

To support butterflies, it’s important not only to provide nectar-rich flowers for the butterflies themselves but also to preserve the host plants for the caterpillars. Nettles in the garden help butterflies like the peacock butterfly reproduce. Incidentally, stinging nettles aren’t just a food source for peacock butterfly caterpillars. The caterpillars of the small tortoiseshell, red admiral, and map butterfly also feed on them.

After overwintering, the moths mate in the spring. The female lays up to several hundred eggs in tightly packed clusters on the underside of nettle leaves in sunny locations. The hatched caterpillars initially live in groups within a web they have woven together. After the growth and feeding phase, they pupate as hanging pupae on plant stems or walls. After about two weeks of pupation, the fully developed butterfly emerges.

Peacock butterflies produce two generations per year. The first generation flies from June through August, and the second from August through October. The second generation then overwinters as adults.

Unlike many other insects, the peacock butterfly does not overwinter as an egg, caterpillar, or pupa, but as a fully grown butterfly (imago). To do this, it seeks out cool, damp, and sheltered places as early as late summer, such as tree hollows, rock crevices, holes in the ground, caves, or man-made locations like unheated basements, attics, garden sheds, or storage sheds.

During the winter, the moth enters a state of cold torpor, drastically slows its metabolism, and uses its body’s own antifreeze agents (such as glycerin) to survive temperatures well below freezing without harm. If heated rooms become too warm in winter, the moths will wake up prematurely and waste valuable energy—in such cases, you should carefully relocate them to a cool, sheltered place.

The peacock butterfly is widespread throughout most of Europe (with the exception of the far north) and across parts of Asia as far as Japan.

It inhabits a wide variety of habitats: from natural gardens, parks, and orchard meadows to forest edges and field copses. In the “ Seewinkel ,” the peacock butterfly can be found wherever there are natural structures, flower-rich areas, and sufficient stands of stinging nettles as food plants for the caterpillars.