Anna’s 88 (Diaethria anna), ventral view (from Wikimedia)

3 October 2026, WINGS Veracruz: Migration is a Moving Experience: Day 5, the highlands near Xalapa

“88” is not the count of butterflies we’ve seen on our birding tour. It’s the common name of Diaethria sp. butterflies whose wings have an “88” or “89” pattern on them.

There are 12 species of Diaetheria butterflies, some of which are found in Veracruz including the Anna’s Eight-Eight (Diaethria anna). The adults feed on rotting fruit, tree sap, and dung, so don’t look for them at flowers.

Diaethria butterflies have completely different colors and patterns on their dorsal and ventral sides — so different that they don’t look like the same butterfly.

Widespread 88 butterfly (Diaethria cylmena) showing both sides of wings, Brazil (photo from Wikimedia)

The ventral side (wings held closed) has a white background with black lines that almost make concentric circles surrounding the numerals 88 or 89 in the center. The upper wing is red but mostly hidden by the other wing. This side of the butterfly is always black, white and red.

Widespread Eighty-eight butterfly, Diaethria clymena, ventral view (from Wikimedia)

The dorsal (upper) side is nothing like the “88” side. It is velvety-black with a slash of color on each wing in iridescent blue or green or yellow.

Dorsal view of Navy 88 (Diaethria astala) butterfly (from Wikimedia)

Dorsal view of Anna’s 88 butterfly (from Wikimedia)

The “88”s on these butterflies develop in the same way that stripes and spots develop on zebras, tigers, leopards and giant pufferfish. They are called Turing patterns.

Turing patterns on zebra, tiger, leopard, pufferfish (composite from Wikimedia photos)

The numerical patterns visible on the wings of the “88 butterfly” [Diaethria sp.including] (Diaethria clymena) originate during embryonic development from morphogenetic mechanisms described by Alan Turing in 1952—known as Turing patterns.

And finally, we carry Turing patterns on our fingers. That’s what fingerprints are!

Macro photo of fingerprint (from Wikimedia)