Henry's elfin
Henry's elfin is a small brown butterfly from North America. Underneath, its wings are two colours, dark brown near the body and lighter towards the edge, with a frosty rim. Its back wings end in short, stubby little tails.
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Fun facts
The males sit at about the height of a grown-up's eyes and wait for a female to fly by.
Its eggs are pale green and turn whitish just before they hatch.
It spends the winter as a pupa hidden in fallen leaves.
It is becoming more common in New England, because its caterpillars now eat a plant called buckthorn that people brought there.
Most asked questions about Henry's elfin
?How big is Henry's elfin?
Its wings are about 2 to 2.5 centimetres across, so it is a small butterfly.
?What does a Henry's elfin caterpillar eat?
It eats the flower buds and leaves of redbud, holly, buckthorn and a few other plants.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Callophrys henrici
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Lycaenidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Lycaenidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Woodland elfin
Where the facts come from
- Callophrys henrici (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 Megan McCarty. CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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