Common wood nymph butterfly--Cercyonis pegala

The common wood nymph butterfly can be found in all of Ohio's eighty-eight counties. It is a member of the Satyridae (satyr) family and prefers to live in open areas of forests and pastures during the months of May to September. This species has a wingspan of 1.9 to 3 inches (4.8 to 7.6 cm). In Ohio there are more than 150 species of butterflies. Twenty-seven different species of butterflies representing five families can be found in the Ohio Memory Online Scrapbook, including all seven species of butterflies that are listed as endangered in Ohio. Butterflies are a part of the order Lepidoptera (from the Greek words lepis, which means scale, and pteron, which means wing). There are nearly 17,500 species of butterflies world-wide. Approximately 750 of these can be found in North America