Milbert's tortoiseshell
Milbert's tortoiseshell is a black butterfly with a wide band of orange that looks like a ring of fire around its wings. Its back wings may have small blue spots too. It is a quick flier that darts along woodland roads.
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Fun facts
A mother can lay up to 900 eggs in a bunch under one leaf.
Young caterpillars eat together inside a silky web, but older ones eat alone.
It spends the winter as a grown-up butterfly, often snuggled up with a few others.
When it lands on a tree or a rock, it often opens its wings wide.
Its front wings have tips that look cut off square.
Most asked questions about Milbert's tortoiseshell
?What does Milbert's tortoiseshell eat?
The butterfly drinks nectar and sap and sips rotten fruit. Its caterpillars eat nettles.
?Where does Milbert's tortoiseshell live?
In Canada, Alaska and most of the United States, often near wet places.
?How big is Milbert's tortoiseshell?
Its wings are about 4 to 6 centimetres from tip to tip.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Aglais milberti
- Named by
- Godart, 1819
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Nymphalidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Fire-rim tortoiseshell
Where the facts come from
- Aglais milberti (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 JerryFriedman. CC BY-SA 3.0, 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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