The Common Buckeye

close up of a brown butterfly with orange, white, yellow, orange and black spot markings with green leaves and yellow flowers behind it

So often we feature exotic butterflies from all over the world in the Christina Reiman Butterfly Wing, but over the next few months we’ll be featuring a hometown kid: the Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia). This small Iowa native species often gets overlooked, despite its showy coloring and striking eye-spot patterns on its wings.

As a larvae, it feeds on a few different plants, including common plantain (Plantago major), which most people spend a lot of time on pulling out of their yard. Look for buckeye in your garden, too, through October, feeding on nectar-filled flowers.