Baltimore checkerspot
The Baltimore checkerspot is a North American butterfly with a checkered pattern on its wings. Its colours reminded people of the old flag colours of Lord Baltimore, and that is how it got its name. It likes wet meadows.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
It is the official state insect of Maryland, chosen in 1973.
Most butterflies spend the winter as an egg or a pupa, but this one spends it as a caterpillar hiding in dead leaves on the ground.
Before winter, the caterpillars spin a little web on a plant, stop eating and rest inside it for months.
In Maryland it has become so rare that it is listed as endangered.
Most asked questions about Baltimore checkerspot
?Where does the Baltimore checkerspot live?
In Canada and the northeastern United States, in wet meadows where its food plant grows.
?Why is it called the Baltimore checkerspot?
Its colours look like the colours of Lord Baltimore, an important man in Maryland's history.
?Is the Baltimore checkerspot endangered?
In Maryland it is listed as endangered because it has become very rare there.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Euphydryas phaeton
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Nymphalidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Baltimore checkerspot (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 Alison Hunter. CC BY-SA 2.5, 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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