Small tortoiseshell
The small tortoiseshell is a bright orange butterfly with black and yellow patches and a row of little blue spots along the edges of its wings. When it folds its wings, the underside is dull brown, so it hides well. It is one of the first butterflies you see on warm spring days.
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Fun facts
It sleeps through the winter as a grown-up butterfly and wakes up on the first warm, sunny days of the year.
Its caterpillars live together in a big group on nettle leaves.
In warm places it can have two families of babies in one summer, but in the cold north only one.
It is the national butterfly of Denmark.
Dry summers are bad for it, because the nettles get dry and the caterpillars do not find enough good food.
Most asked questions about Small tortoiseshell
?What does a small tortoiseshell eat?
The butterfly drinks nectar from flowers. The caterpillars eat stinging nettles.
?Where does the small tortoiseshell go in winter?
It finds a sheltered spot and sleeps through the winter as a butterfly, then wakes up in early spring.
?How big is a small tortoiseshell?
Its wings are about 4.5 to 6 centimetres across when open.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Aglais urticae
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Nymphalidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Small tortoiseshell (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 Jörg Hempel. CC BY-SA 3.0 de, 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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