Indian tortoiseshell
Aglais caschmirensis
The Indian tortoiseshell is a bright butterfly of the Himalaya mountains. Its wings are red, yellow and brown with big black spots and a border of little blue moons. Underneath it is dark brown, so it is hard to see when it folds its wings.
Lives in
The Himalayas and nearby mountains, from Afghanistan and Pakistan to India and western China
Wingspan
5.2 to 6.3 cm (2 to 2.5 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The grown-up butterflies sip sweet nectar from flowers.
How big is it?
How wide are its wings?
š§±wings as wide as 2 toy building bricksā½could fly across a whole football pitch in 25 seconds
How big is Indian tortoiseshell compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Indian tortoiseshell about 15 km/h (9.3 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
It lives in the mountains from about 600 up to 5,500 metres high.
2
Its feelers are dark brown with tiny white rings.
3
The blue band underneath its wings is easier to see on the females than on the males.
you asked
Most asked questions about Indian tortoiseshell
?Where does the Indian tortoiseshell live?
In the Himalayas and other high mountains of Asia.
?How big is the Indian tortoiseshell?
Its wings are about 52 to 63 millimetres across.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Aglais caschmirensis
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Nymphalidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
- Lives on
- Asia
Where the facts come from
- Aglais caschmirensis (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 Dr. Raju Kasambe. CC BY-SA 4.0, 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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