Meadow argus
The meadow argus is a brown butterfly with two black and blue eyespots on each wing, plus little white and orange marks. The eyespots trick birds into pecking the wing instead of the body, so the butterfly can escape.
How big is it?
How wide are its wings?
How big is Meadow argus compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
It rests in four different ways. In sunshine it opens its wings, and if danger comes it opens them even wider to flash its eyespots.
In 1886 thousands of meadow arguses drifted across the sea from Australia to New Zealand.
Every October or November, many fly from southern Australia to warmer places in the north.
Its eggs hatch in 7 to 10 days, and the caterpillar stage lasts 4 to 5 weeks.
Most asked questions about Meadow argus
?Why does the meadow argus have eyespots?
The eyespots scare or confuse hungry birds, so they peck at the wing edge instead of the body.
?Where can I see a meadow argus?
In gardens, grasslands, forests and along roadsides in Australia and nearby islands.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Junonia villida
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Nymphalidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
- Lives on
- Australia and Oceania, Asia
- Also known as
- Albin's Hampstead eye
Where the facts come from
- Meadow argus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by JJ Harrison ( https://www.jjharrison.com.au/ ). CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
Bug Wiki honey jar For grown-ups: Bug Wiki is free, with no ads and no tracking. A small tip helps keep it online.Leave a tip
Monarch butterfly
Peacock butterfly
Blue morpho
Old World swallowtail
Small white
Eastern tiger swallowtail
Four-lined hornet fly
Three-tooth bulin
Small yellow-girdled tenthredo
Umbellifer longhorn beetle
Saddleback grass-cutter
Two-celled miner