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African butterfly
Sat, Jan 10, 2009 at 7:06 AM
What is this pretty butterfly? It looks a little similar to the American buckeyes.
Judy Gallagher
Victoria Falls, Zambia

Zambian Brush Footed Butterfly

Hi Judy,
Your observation that this Zambian Butterfly resembled an American Buckeye was a good one. Both are in the same family, Nymphalidae. We searched the web for about 20 minutes trying to identify your specimen, but we did not have any luck. Perhaps one of our readers will write in with an answer.

Update: Zambian Brushfoot
Sun, Jan 11, 2009 at 6:24 AM
Hi Daniel:
You and Judy are closer than you thought. The butterfly is called the Brown Pansy (Junonia natalica), a brushfoot in the same genus as the Common Buckeye from North America (Junonia coenia). It’s quite a large genus, with representatives in tropical and sub-tropical regions of most continents. There aren’t many good images on the internet (Judys is now one of them) but the UK Butterflies site has an article on the butterflies of Kruger National Park – scroll down to Brown Pansy and click on the thumbnail. Regards.
Karl
Here is the link: http://www.ukbutterflies.co. uk/reports_kruger.php

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4. Peacock Pansy from India (December 14, 2009)
5. Chrysalis from Zambia: probably Common Leopard (March 5, 2010)