The Life of Animals | Inachis Io | The European Peacock (Inachis io), more commonly known simply as the Peacock butterfly, is a colourful butterfly, found in Europe, temperate Asia as far east as Japan. The Peacock butterfly is resident in much of its range, often wintering in buildings or trees. The Peacock butterfly has figured in research where the role of eye-spots as anti-predator mechanism has been investigated
In the British Isles, the butterfly is found in England, Scotland (including Orkney and Shetland), Wales and Ireland. The Peacock is expanding its range. The butterfly has a wingspan of 50 to 55 mm. The base-colour of the wings is a rusty red, and at each wingtip it bears a distinctive, black, blue and yellow eye-spot. The underside is a cryptically coloured dark-brown or black.
It is a relatively common butterfly seen in many European parks and gardens. The Peacock male exhibits territorial behaviour, in many cases territories being selected en route of the females to oviposition sites.
The recorded foodplants of the European Peacock are Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica), Hop (Humulus lupulus) and the Small Nettle (Urtica urens) The adult butterflies drink nectar from a wide variety of flowering plants, including buddleia, willows, dandelions, wild marjoram, danewort, hemp agrimony, and clover; they also utilize tree sap and rotten fruit.
