Southern festoon
The southern festoon is a yellow butterfly covered in wiggly black lines, like a page of scribbles. Along the edge of its back wings it has little red and blue spots. Those bright spots tell birds: do not eat me, I taste bad.
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Fun facts
Its caterpillar grows up to 3.5 centimetres long and is covered with six rows of orange and black spikes.
It is one of the first butterflies of spring and flies from April to June.
A grown-up butterfly lives only about three weeks.
The chrysalis spends the whole winter tied to a plant with a silk belt, and the butterfly comes out the next spring.
The poison from the caterpillar's food stays in the butterfly, so birds learn to leave it alone.
Most asked questions about Southern festoon
?Is the southern festoon poisonous?
It tastes bad to birds because its caterpillar eats poisonous plants. It is safe to look at.
?How big is the southern festoon?
Its wings are about 4.6 to 5.2 centimetres from tip to tip.
?When can you see a southern festoon?
In spring, from April to June.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Zerynthia polyxena
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Papilionidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Papilionidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Zerynthia polyxena (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 Maurizio Carlini. 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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