Red lacewing
The red lacewing is a butterfly from Asia with bright orange-red wings edged in black and white, like fancy lace. Its underside has a busy red, black and white pattern. The bright colours tell birds: I taste bad, do not eat me.
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Fun facts
It gets its bad taste from the poisonous plants it eats as a caterpillar.
Males and females look different. The female's wings are greyish brown instead of red.
The busy pattern underneath helps hide the shape of the butterfly.
Its caterpillar has red, black and white stripes and long black spikes filled with poison.
It lives on lots of different islands and has more than 25 different kinds.
Most asked questions about Red lacewing
?Is the red lacewing poisonous?
It tastes bad to birds, and its caterpillars have poisonous spikes, so do not touch them.
?What does the red lacewing eat?
The caterpillars eat passionflower vines. The butterflies drink nectar.
?How big is the red lacewing?
Its wings are about 8 to 9 centimetres across.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Cethosia biblis
- Named by
- Drury, 1773
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Nymphalidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
- Lives on
- Asia
- Also known as
- Lacewing biblis
Where the facts come from
- Cethosia biblis (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 John Pavelka. CC BY 2.0, 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.
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