{"id":8520,"date":"2017-07-04T09:00:38","date_gmt":"2017-07-04T14:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/?p=8520"},"modified":"2024-12-26T16:17:27","modified_gmt":"2024-12-26T22:17:27","slug":"surprising-porch-bug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/surprising-porch-bug\/","title":{"rendered":"A Surprising Porch Bug (Family Nymphalidae)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"default_cursor_cs\">Howdy, BugFans,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"default_cursor_cs\">The BugLady added a new porch light bug recently\u2014a Northern Pearly-eye. Butterfly. At 11 PM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-northern-pearly-eye-butterfly\">Northern Pearly-eye Butterfly<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The porch-light Pearly-eye is not the first one that the BugLady has seen after dark\u2014she has photographed them on oranges (put out for the birds) after sunset and at 1 AM under her yard light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the topic of nocturnal butterflies, the internet is, understandably, largely mute (of course, the BugLady is keyword-challenged) (and there is a film by that name). In <em>Mariposa Road<\/em>, Robert Michael Pyle says that the Northern Pearly-eye \u201cmight be the closest thing to a nocturnal butterfly in the United States,\u201d and there was a tantalizing paper called \u201cNocturnal Butterflies of Panama\u201d by Annette Aiello, who reminds us that day-flying Lepidopterans are a very small minority indeed (butterflies make up fewer than 10% of species of Lepidoptera). She goes on to say that our knowledge of butterflies is expanding, and that a family of Lepidopterans in Panama that was once thought to be moths in the inch-worm family (Geometridae) turned out to be nocturnal butterflies!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A search for \u201ccrepuscular butterflies\u201d (dawn and dusk) proved only minimally more successful. Most trails lead to the Pearly-eye\u2019s family (family Nymphalidae, the brush-footed butterflies) and to its subfamily Satyrinae, and then to members of its genus (which is either <em>Lethe<\/em> or <em>Enodia<\/em>, depending on whose book you read).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Northern Pearly-eyes are generally described as shade loving butterflies of forest glades and edges, not found on flowers in sunny meadows. Weber, in <em>Butterflies of the North Woods<\/em>, says that they \u201cmay be active early a.m. or late p.m. when they court,\u201d and several sources said that they may come to light at night. <em>Quod erat demonstrandum<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Day-flying butterflies face a variety of predators, but being afoot at night isn\u2019t much safer; many bats would consider a Pearly-eye a tasty morsel. Like some families of moths, butterflies in the subfamily Satyrinae have hearing organs\u2014swollen, fluid-filled, enervated veins on the underside of their forewings. The Pearly-eye folds its wings at rest, which exposes the \u201cears,\u201d located at the base of its wings (in fact, the BugLady has never seen a Pearly-eye with its wings spread and would probably not recognize it if she did). Day-flying butterflies may be able to detect the sound of a bird\u2019s wings, and Pearly-eyes may be able to hear the clicking of bat echolocation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Find a brief biography of <a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/wood-nymphs-part-2\/\">Northern Pearly-eyes<\/a> in the Bug of the Week archive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Field note #1 \u2013 Small moths in the genus Petrophila covered flowers blooming along the river on a recent walk. A delicately beautiful moth, it has a big secret. See BOTW&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/two-lined-petrophila-moth-rerun\/\">Two-lined Petrophila Moth Rerun (Family Crambidae)<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"aligncenter uwm-c-img--center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2017\/07\/petrophila17-1rz.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2017\/07\/petrophila17-1rz.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8521\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2017\/07\/petrophila17-1rz.jpg 500w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2017\/07\/petrophila17-1rz-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2017\/07\/petrophila17-1rz-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Field note #2 \u2013 When the BugLady was out on the prairie after a rain last week, she found a bunch of Blue Mud Daubers visiting the water reservoirs of cup plants (more about that in a future BOTW). To find out why, see BOTW&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/black-and-yellow-mud-dauber\/\">Black and Yellow Mud Dauber (Family Specidae)<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"aligncenter uwm-c-img--center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2017\/07\/blue-mud-dauber11-2brz.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2017\/07\/blue-mud-dauber11-2brz.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8522\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2017\/07\/blue-mud-dauber11-2brz.jpg 700w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2017\/07\/blue-mud-dauber11-2brz-300x214.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The BugLady<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Northern Pearly-eyes<\/strong> are generally described as shade loving butterflies of forest glades and edges, not found on flowers in sunny meadows. They \u201cmay be active early a.m. or late p.m. when they court,\u201d and several sources said that they may come to light at night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[8],"tags":[41],"class_list":["post-8520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bug-of-the-week","tag-butterflies"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Field Station<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/surprising-porch-bug\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Surprising Porch Bug (Family Nymphalidae)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Northern Pearly-eyes are generally described as shade loving butterflies of forest glades and edges, not found on flowers in sunny meadows. They \u201cmay be active early a.m. or late p.m. when they court,\u201d and several sources said that they may come to light at night.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/surprising-porch-bug\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Field Station\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-07-04T14:00:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-12-26T22:17:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2017\/07\/petrophila17-1rz.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/surprising-porch-bug\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/surprising-porch-bug\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"A Surprising Porch Bug (Family Nymphalidae)\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-07-04T14:00:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-12-26T22:17:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/surprising-porch-bug\/\"},\"wordCount\":510,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/surprising-porch-bug\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2017\/07\/petrophila17-1rz.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Butterflies\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Bug of the Week\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/surprising-porch-bug\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/surprising-porch-bug\/\",\"name\":\"A Surprising Porch Bug (Family Nymphalidae) - Field Station\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/surprising-porch-bug\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/surprising-porch-bug\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2017\/07\/petrophila17-1rz.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-07-04T14:00:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-12-26T22:17:27+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/surprising-porch-bug\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/surprising-porch-bug\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/surprising-porch-bug\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2017\/07\/petrophila17-1rz.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2017\/07\/petrophila17-1rz.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/surprising-porch-bug\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Bug of the Week\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/category\/bug-of-the-week\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"A Surprising Porch Bug (Family Nymphalidae)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/\",\"name\":\"Field Station\",\"description\":\"UW-Milwaukee\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Field Station","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/surprising-porch-bug\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Surprising Porch Bug (Family Nymphalidae)","og_description":"Northern Pearly-eyes are generally described as shade loving butterflies of forest glades and edges, not found on flowers in sunny meadows. They \u201cmay be active early a.m. or late p.m. when they court,\u201d and several sources said that they may come to light at night.","og_url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/surprising-porch-bug\/","og_site_name":"Field Station","article_published_time":"2017-07-04T14:00:38+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-12-26T22:17:27+00:00","og_image":[{"width":500,"height":500,"url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2017\/07\/petrophila17-1rz.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/surprising-porch-bug\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/surprising-porch-bug\/"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"A Surprising Porch Bug (Family Nymphalidae)","datePublished":"2017-07-04T14:00:38+00:00","dateModified":"2024-12-26T22:17:27+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/surprising-porch-bug\/"},"wordCount":510,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/surprising-porch-bug\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2017\/07\/petrophila17-1rz.jpg","keywords":["Butterflies"],"articleSection":["Bug of the Week"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/surprising-porch-bug\/","url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/surprising-porch-bug\/","name":"A Surprising Porch Bug (Family Nymphalidae) - Field Station","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/surprising-porch-bug\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/surprising-porch-bug\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2017\/07\/petrophila17-1rz.jpg","datePublished":"2017-07-04T14:00:38+00:00","dateModified":"2024-12-26T22:17:27+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/surprising-porch-bug\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/surprising-porch-bug\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/surprising-porch-bug\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2017\/07\/petrophila17-1rz.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/380\/2017\/07\/petrophila17-1rz.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/surprising-porch-bug\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Bug of the Week","item":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/category\/bug-of-the-week\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"A Surprising Porch Bug (Family Nymphalidae)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/#website","url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/","name":"Field Station","description":"UW-Milwaukee","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":""}]}},"acf":[],"meta_fields":{"_edit_lock":["1735251450:19861"],"_edit_last":["19861"],"_yoast_wpseo_content_score":["30"],"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":["8"],"_yoast_indexnow_last_ping":["1735251447"],"feat_img_video":[""],"feat_img_gallery":[""],"feat_img_caption":["feat-img-caption-on"],"breadcrumbs_display":["breadcrumbs-on"],"otp_nav_display":["otp-on-mobile"],"post_layout":["post-layout-theme"],"_yoast_wpseo_focuskeywords":[""],"_yoast_wpseo_keywordsynonyms":[""],"_yoast_wpseo_estimated-reading-time-minutes":["3"],"_uwm_wg_content_review_log":["a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:11:\"reviewer_id\";i:0;s:6:\"status\";s:5:\"reset\";s:10:\"entry_date\";s:19:\"2026-03-01 02:10:46\";s:16:\"priority_content\";s:0:\"\";s:4:\"note\";s:43:\"Content review reset at start of new cycle.\";}}"]},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-12 22:25:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8520"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15685,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8520\/revisions\/15685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}