Common rose
The common rose is a big swallowtail butterfly with velvety black wings, white patches and a row of red spots. Its body is bright red. That red body is a warning to birds: I am poisonous, do not eat me.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
It gets its poison from the plant its caterpillar eats, so birds and lizards rarely attack it.
Some tasty butterflies copy its look so that hungry animals leave them alone too.
It wakes up earlier in the morning than most butterflies and flies happily in the shade as well as the sun.
In the evening it looks for dead twigs high up in trees and often sleeps there together with other common roses.
In India it is one of the most common big butterflies, and after the rainy season there are huge numbers of them.
Most asked questions about Common rose
?Is the common rose butterfly poisonous?
Yes, to animals that try to eat it. It is harmless to people, but do not pick it up.
?What does the common rose eat?
The butterfly drinks flower nectar. Its caterpillar eats a plant that makes the butterfly taste bad.
?Where does the common rose live?
All over South and Southeast Asia, often in gardens and even in crowded cities.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Pachliopta aristolochiae
- Named by
- Fabricius, 1775
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Papilionidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Papilionidae
- Lives on
- Asia
Where the facts come from
- Pachliopta aristolochiae (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 Peellden. 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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