About Aglais io (Linnaeus, 1758)
This butterfly species has a wingspan ranging from 50 to 55 millimetres, which equals 2 to 2+1⁄8 inches. The base colour of its wings is rusty red. Each of its wingtips carries a distinct, multi-coloured eyespot made up of black, blue, and yellow markings. The underside of the wings has cryptic colouring, being dark brown or black, that mimics the appearance of a dead leaf. Two recognised subspecies exist for this species: A. io caucasica (first described by Jachontov in 1912), which is found in Azerbaijan, and A. io geisha (first described by Stichel in 1908), which occurs in Japan and the Russian Far East.
