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Species
Spotlight

Giant Silk
Moth Survey

JUTTA ARCTIC (Oeneis jutta)

Identification
Gray-brown above with pale yellow-orange submarginal bands or circles containing black eye spots. Female usually shows more yellow than male on upperside of the wings. Underside of hindwing is mottled brown and gray with an obscure median band, outlined faintly with white scaling.

Kaufman's Butterflies of North America, page 252
Glassberg's Butterflies Through Binoculars, plate 44

Habitat in Vermont
Spruce bogs

Host Plant
Cottongrass (Eriophorum spissum) and other sedges

Adult Food Preferences
Nectar from bog flowers such as Labrador Tea (Ledum groenlandicum).

U.S. Distribution

VBS Distribution

VBS Flight Period



Notes
Don’t expect to find this butterfly away from a spruce bog. It’ll dart past you, like no other brown butterfly you’ve seen, and without warning alight on a sunny, exposed tree trunk or even a wooden boardwalk (if your spruce bog has one). With its wings folded, like its relatives, it resembles lichen.

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