White Peacock

About the White Peacock

The White Peacock is a pale, pearly butterfly of wet, weedy places - creamy white with a faint buff wash, orange-edged wings, and a scatter of dark eyespots that recall a small peacock feather. Fresh individuals almost glow against green vegetation.

It flies low and fast over damp fields and pond margins, settling often with wings spread flat, and males set up small territories that they patrol tirelessly, chasing off other butterflies. The caterpillars feed on water hyssop and frogfruit, both low plants of moist ground, which is why the butterfly is tied to wet edges.

In Texas the White Peacock is a year-round resident of the Rio Grande Valley and the coastal plain, and it wanders north across much of the state in late summer and fall - a common and welcome sight around the ponds and gardens of the Valley refuges.