The butterfly with eyes on its wings

These butterflies are not common in the village but can be found near streams or banana plantations. They look intimidating but are not as skittish as others, meaning they do not fly away when they hear human noise but rely on their unusual camouflage.

I came across one on the riverbank and approached as quietly as I could so as not to scare it away, and took this photo with my mobile phone.

I read that they are called Owl Butterflies and that the eyes on their wings are not real and serve to scare away their enemies and predators. In many places, people associate them with superstitions, such as that they are reincarnations of witches or the spirits of someone who has recently died.

In my village, I have not heard anything associated with this. The butterflies that people speak ill of are the black ones, which are associated with bad luck or witchcraft.

In the plains, there are many scary legends, almost all of which arose in the days before electricity, when dark moonless nights created shadows and ghostly apparitions.

Near my village there are streams and creeks, and a little further away there is a river where we used to bathe. In my presentation I included a photo of it, and here are two more of others that surround us.