Bug card No. 0281 of 1,500
Clipper butterfly
Parthenos sylvia
The clipper is a big butterfly from the forests of Asia with large, broad wings. It is a fast flier that flaps its wings stiffly and then glides for a while. Its caterpillar is pale green and covered in branched spines.
Lives in
South and Southeast Asia, from India and Sri Lanka to the Philippines and New Guinea, mostly in forests
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Butterflies cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Like most butterflies, the grown-ups sip sweet liquid from flowers. The spiny caterpillars munch leaves.
How fast is it?
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Clipper butterfly about 15 km/h (9.3 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
It flaps with stiff wings that hardly go below level, and then glides between flaps.
2
Males and females look the same.
3
Its caterpillar has spines on its head and tail, and longer branched spines along its body.
4
Its pupa is brown and shaped like a little boat.
you asked
Most asked questions about Clipper butterfly
?Where does the clipper butterfly live?
In forests of South and Southeast Asia, from India to New Guinea.
?Is the clipper butterfly dangerous?
No, it is completely harmless.
?How does the clipper fly?
Fast, with stiff wing flaps and short glides in between.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Parthenos sylvia
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Nymphalidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
- Lives on
- Asia, Australia and Oceania
- Also known as
- Clipper
Where the facts come from
- Parthenos sylvia (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Jeevan Jose, Kerala, India. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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