Polymnia tigerwing
Mechanitis polymnia
The polymnia tigerwing is a tropical butterfly with tiger-like wings. It flutters through the warm forests of Central and South America. Its caterpillars eat plants from the same family as potatoes and tomatoes.
Lives in
From Mexico to the Amazon rainforest
Wingspan
6.5 to 7.5 cm (2.6 to 3 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Adults visit flowers. The caterpillars eat Solanum plants, cousins of potato plants.
How big is it?
How wide are its wings?
🧱wings as wide as 2.5 toy building bricks⚽could fly across a whole football pitch in 22 seconds
How big is Polymnia tigerwing compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Polymnia tigerwing about 17 km/h (11 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
A car driving in town about 50 km/h (31 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
Its wings measure 65 to 75 millimetres from tip to tip.
2
It lives all the way from Mexico to the Amazon rainforest.
3
Many different kinds of it live in different countries, from Mexico and Trinidad to Peru and Brazil.
you asked
Most asked questions about Polymnia tigerwing
?Where does the polymnia tigerwing live?
In warm forests from Mexico down to the Amazon rainforest.
?What do polymnia tigerwing caterpillars eat?
They eat Solanum plants, relatives of potatoes.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Mechanitis polymnia
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Nymphalidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
- Lives on
- North America, South America
- Also known as
- Orange-spotted tiger clearwing, Disturbed tigerwing
Where the facts come from
- Mechanitis polymnia (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 D. Gordon E. Robertson. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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