Common evening brown
The common evening brown is a brown butterfly that comes out to fly at dusk, when most butterflies are going to sleep. It flutters in a wobbly zig-zag. Under its wings it has a row of little eyespots.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
It flies in the evening twilight, which is how it got its name.
A butterfly that lives in one spot chases away visitors at dusk. It will even chase a pebble thrown nearby.
It looks different in the wet season and in the dry season. Dry-season butterflies have more hooked wing tips.
Its underside is covered in fine brown stripes, which help it hide among dry leaves.
Most asked questions about Common evening brown
?Why is it called the evening brown?
Because it is brown and flies at dusk, in the evening.
?What does the common evening brown eat?
The butterfly drinks nectar and sometimes juice from rotting fruit. Its caterpillars eat grasses like rice.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Melanitis leda
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Nymphalidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
- Lives on
- Africa, Asia, Australia and Oceania
Where the facts come from
- Melanitis leda (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 Jeevan Jose, Kerala, India. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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