Peacock pansy (<i>Junonia almana almana</i>) dry season form, Nepalgunj, Nepal. This butterfly exhibits seasonal <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/polyphenism" class="extiw" title="en:polyphenism">polyphenism</a>. Throughout the year the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junonia_almana" class="extiw" title="en:Junonia almana">peacock butterfly</a> basks with its wings open – see <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Junonia_almana-Kadavoor-2016-07-11-002.jpg" title="File:Junonia almana-Kadavoor-2016-07-11-002.jpg">a wet season FP from Jee</a>. The bright orange colour and the large <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyespot_(mimicry)" class="extiw" title="en:Eyespot (mimicry)">eyespots</a> keep vertebrate predators away. The big change comes when it rests with its wings closed. In the wet season, when everything is green, it has <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Junonia_almana_WSF_UN_by_kadavoor.JPG" class="extiw" title="en:File:Junonia almana WSF UN by kadavoor.JPG">bright eyespots</a> on the underside too. But a butterfly born in the dry season need a different camoflage.  There’s less food around and it must rest more. The forewings of the dry season form are fulcate (see nom) and the hindwing has a ‘tail’. There are no eyespots. It becomes an <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Peacock_pansy_(Junonia_almana_almana)_underside_dry_season_form.jpg" title="File:Peacock pansy (Junonia almana almana) underside dry season form.jpg">imitation of a dry leaf</a> when it roosts upside down or enters <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/aestivation" class="extiw" title="en:aestivation">aestivation</a>.
<bdi><a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q54800218" class="extiw" title="d:Q54800218"><span title="Scottish wildlife photographer">Charles J. Sharp</span></a>
</bdi>
CC BY-SA 4.0
<span class="int-own-work" lang="en">Own work</span>, from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.sharpphotography.co.uk/">Sharp Photography, sharpphotography.co.uk</a>