In addition to this, the bush brown is one of many insect species to vary its coloration depending on the season,[5] making it a valuable tool in studying phenotypic plasticity.

[6] Male butterflies engage in mud-puddling, which involves taking up nutrients by aggregating on wet soil and dung.

Males have sexual traits on their wings called androconia that release pheromones during courtship.

[5] The butterflies is characterized by their unusually short front legs and their rather non-descript brown wings.

Its relative small size makes it easy to breed and care for, while it is large enough to place tags on and surgically manipulate.

Their phenotypic plasticity in life history traits, wing patterns, and seasonal habits combined with the fact that their entire genome has been sequenced makes them ideal subjects in understanding how the environment effects genes.

B. a. anynana can be found from Kenya to Tanzania and Ethiopia as well as in Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Rhodesia, Botswana, South Africa, and the Comoro Islands.

[14] As the squinting bush brown is widespread and common throughout its distribution, its conservation status is secure and has no reported management needs.

[13] The squinting bush brown can live up to half a year in the wild and reaches sexual maturity around 2 weeks.

They are primarily found in eastern parts of Africa, mainly in the countries of Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe.

[17] The larval diet consists of several species of grass and the adult butterflies feed on fruit that is on the ground.

This is a specific type of feeding pattern where the butterfly will take up nutrients and sodium through the aggregating on the mud or dung.

[19] There are six steps that males take in order to mate with a female: location, orientation, flickering, thrust, attempting, and copulation.

[9] Male courtship rates of the squinting bush brown butterfly exhibit a degree of plasticity.

[9] In the squinting bush brown butterfly, high temperatures of around 27 degrees Celsius led to increased courtship by males, but low temperatures of 17 degrees Celsius led to males courting females at a much lower rate.

[9] Researchers predict that temperature as an adult has an effect because behavioral plasticity extends throughout development into adulthood.

[10] Researchers at Yale University have discovered that the temperature at which the larvae are raised has an effect on the imago's sexual behaviour.

In addition to this the number of adults born from inbreeding have a high probability of being crippled and having low fecundity.

[19] Even though B. anynana suffers from inbreeding depression when forcibly inbred it recovers within a few generation when allowed to breed freely.

A second potential benefit is that peripheral eye spots bring attention to non-essential body parts.