Orange oakleaf
The orange oakleaf is a master of hide and seek. When it closes its wings, it looks exactly like a dry brown leaf, with a middle line and veins just like a real one. But when it opens them, it shows off bright blue and orange with a black tip.
How big is it?
How wide are its wings?
How big is Orange oakleaf compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
The underside of its wings even has little dark dots that look like mould on an old leaf.
No two look exactly the same underneath. They come in many shades of brown, grey and yellow.
Butterflies born in the dry season are bigger than the ones born in the rainy season.
Females are usually bigger than males and have a longer point on their front wings.
It is one of the most famous examples of camouflage in the whole animal world.
Most asked questions about Orange oakleaf
?Why does the orange oakleaf look like a leaf?
So that birds and other hungry animals walk right past it, thinking it is just a dead leaf.
?How big is the orange oakleaf?
Its wings are about 8.5 to 11 centimetres across.
?Where does the orange oakleaf live?
In tropical Asia, from Pakistan and India all the way to Japan.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Kallima inachus
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Nymphalidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
- Lives on
- Asia
- Also known as
- Indian oakleaf, Dead leaf
Where the facts come from
- Kallima inachus (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 岡部碩道. Public domain, 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.
Monarch butterfly
Peacock butterfly
Blue morpho
Old World swallowtail
Small white
Eastern tiger swallowtail
Giant flower beetle
Trap-jaw ant
Conehead termite
Chinese bird spider
Mandaçaia bee
Gray's leaf insect