European Peacock Butterfly

Aglais io

Aglais io, the European peacock, or the peacock butterfly, is a colourful butterfly, found in Europe and temperate Asia as far east as Japan. The peacock butterfly is resident in much of its range, often wintering in buildings or trees. It therefore often appears quite early in spring. Source

Where it is now

In the last 8 weeks this insect was recorded 326 times across 20 areas (each area is a 5 degree square).

See the European Peacock Butterfly on the live map

Movement and weather

Each season it is first heard regularly where daytime highs are around 11°C (typically 10 to 12°C, from 5 areas). That holds across 20° of latitude, which suggests its timing follows temperature more than the calendar.

Over the weeks it was present in the past year, its centre in Europe ranged from 49°N in February to 60°N in May, about 1,200 km apart.

Arrival dates

The week it was first heard regularly in each region, after at least six weeks away. Dates differ from south to north, so a region has a range.

Download every area as CSV

Figures are effort corrected and come from automatic sound identification, which makes mistakes. How this is measured and how it compares with human observers.