False ilex hairstreak
The false ilex hairstreak is a small brown butterfly with a little tail on each back wing. It looks so much like its cousin, the ilex hairstreak, that it got the name false ilex hairstreak. It lives in warm, sunny places around the western Mediterranean Sea.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Its caterpillars eat holm oak and kermes oak, evergreen oaks that grow in woods and scrubby bushland.
In Spain it is missing from Galicia, because the oaks it needs do not grow there.
Its upper side is plain brown, with only a tiny red spot near the tail.
It also lives on the Balearic Islands, such as Majorca.
Most asked questions about False ilex hairstreak
?What does the false ilex hairstreak eat?
The butterfly drinks nectar. Its caterpillars eat the leaves of evergreen oaks.
?Where does the false ilex hairstreak live?
In North Africa, Spain, Portugal, the Balearic Islands, southern France and northwestern Italy.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Satyrium esculi
- Named by
- Hübner, 1804
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Lycaenidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Lycaenidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Africa
Where the facts come from
- Satyrium esculi (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 Ferran pestaña. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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