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Sticker of Blomfild's beauty
Bug card No. 0513 of 4,939

Blomfild's beauty

Smyrna blomfildia
Eats: PlantsButterfliesRainforests and jungles6 legs

Blomfild's beauty is a bright butterfly from the warm forests of the Americas. The male is red orange and the female is brown. Both have black wing tips with three little white spots.

Lives in
From southern Texas and Mexico through Central America to Peru and Brazil, in tropical forests
Wingspan
7.5 to 9 cm (3 to 3.5 in)
Top speed
about 18 km/h (11 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The grown-up butterflies sip juice from rotting fruit. The caterpillars eat the leaves of plants from the nettle family.
For real!Photo of Blomfild's beauty
Picture by Bill Bouton. CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Blomfild's beauty wings about 9 cm tip to tip (3.5 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)
wings as wide as 3 toy building brickscould fly across a whole football pitch in 21 seconds

How big is Blomfild's beauty compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its caterpillar builds a little chain out of its own poop and uses it as a resting spot.

2

The caterpillar is black with a bright orange head and a row of strong spines along its white sides.

3

Males often meet in big groups on wet ground to drink water full of minerals.

4

Under its back wings it has wavy brown and tan patterns.

you asked

Most asked questions about Blomfild's beauty

?What does Blomfild's beauty eat?

The butterflies drink juice from rotting fruit, and the caterpillars eat leaves of plants in the nettle family.

?Is Blomfild's beauty dangerous?

No. It is a harmless butterfly.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Smyrna blomfildia
Named by
Fabricius, 1793
Group
Butterflies
Family
Nymphalidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
Lives on
North America, South America

Where the facts come from

  1. Smyrna blomfildia (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Bill Bouton. CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this 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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More from the same group: Butterflies

Also at home here: Rainforests and jungles

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