Peacock predation

[Jack Harrison]

I have heard it said that Peacocks when hibernating and attacked by a predator, flash their wings open suddenly and scare the daylights out of the attacker. I don't know if this is true but this butterfly (photographed 30 March) had clearly been attacked by a small rodent (or something or other). Both hind wings have similar damage.

Jack

[Trev Sawyer]

... and peacock butterflies don't just rely on a visual warning to scare off potential attackers... When I was a child, I found one coming out of hibernation in my shed and when I went to pick it up, it flashed open it's wing and made a loud 'sandpapering' noise. It frightened the life out of me I can tell you, as I wasn't aware they could do this. Not sure what other species can make a noise, but I think there are others?

Trev

[Padfield]

This peacock (spring 2007) looks as if something had explicitly gone for its 'eyes' - but of course as they weren't really eyes it lived to tell the tale:



And this one (also spring 2007) has similar symmetrical 'gnawing' damage to that Jack found:



Guy

[Neil Hulme]

Hi Jack, Trev, Guy,
The evolution of butterfly eyespots undoubtedly works as a 'diversionary tactic' and a great many insects must escape as the result. Obviously it won't always work. On the 29th June 2005, my first Purple Emperor of the year was a dismembered female, found on a thrush anvil (surrounded by slime and broken snail shells)! One of the group I was with took all the parts home and re-assembled it like a jigsaw puzzle (I regret that we never took a photo, as I suspect this is really quite rare, but this was before I personally owned a camera). All the legs, antennae etc were there, and apart from the body which had been eaten, the only pieces missing were the small eyespots towards the rear of the hind wings. I suspect a Song Thrush had made an opportunist kill of a very freshly emerged butterfly and had hammered the 'eyes' into oblivion!
Neil