Mystery: Unidentified Brush Footed Butterfly: Owl Butterfly perhaps???

bugman (online)

June 28th, 2010 at 9:32 am

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A butterfly !
June 28, 2010
Your letter to the bugman   Hi I took this photograph in a butterfly garden located in Quepos, Costa Rica, Pacific Coast.
How you want your letter signed   mmh ? don’t understand the question ?
Geographic Location of Bug   Quepos, Costa Rica, Pacific Coast.

caligo costa rica 270x300 Mystery: Unidentified Brush Footed Butterfly: Owl Butterfly perhaps???

Might this be an Owl Butterfly

Dear mmh ? don’t understand the question ?,
The line on our form that indicates “How you want your letter signed” is the field that allows the writer to use their real name or a pseudonym with the submission of the letter. The letters that are submitted may be posted to our website and it is generally considered proper etiquette to place a name or identifying mark after writing a letter. We respect our readership’s desire to maintain anonymity sometimes, so we do not post real names or email addresses unless the person completes the “How you want your letter signed” field with a real name, or unless they request that their email address be posted. Your photo is very nice.

Ed. Note: mmh ? don’t understand the question ? did not request an identification and we don’t understand what they want us to do with the photograph. The correct identification of a rarely seen species might take hours, and even then, there might not be a satisfactory result. Though we don’t believe this is an Owl Butterfly in the genus Caligo, it does share some similarities. Cirrus IMages has a nice image of an Owl Butterfly. This specimen might be in the genus Caligo, and it might be a related genus in the family Nymphalidae, the Brush Footed Butterflies. We suspect that Karl will be able to provide us with more information.

Hi Daniel
Thanks a lot for your answer ! I’m french and sometimes my english is a bit too light !!
Shall I complete the form with my real name then : Sabine Bernert
In fact, now that I have more space to explain my question, I should add that I’m working on two books about Costa Rica wildlife (adult and kids versions).
Many thanks for your help !!
All the best
Sabine

Hi Again Sabine,
Now that you have clarified your confusion, we feel that we owe you an apology for not providing you with an identification. Also, we would think the butterfly garden might have information on the species represented in the garden.

add Mystery: Unidentified Brush Footed Butterfly: Owl Butterfly perhaps???

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Comments 2

dominikhofer wrote:
It is a Eryphanis sp., actually a so called Giant Owl Butterfly, Nymphalidae, Brassolinae.
Posted 06 Jul 2011 at 7:45 am ¶
bugman wrote:
Thanks for your input on this posting. It is also good to know that multiple genera are known as Owl Butterflies.
Posted 06 Jul 2011 at 7:51 am ¶