Gatekeeper butterfly
The gatekeeper is a small orange and brown butterfly that loves hedges. On each front wing it has a dark eyespot with two white dots inside. It often rests with its wings open, so its pretty pattern is easy to see.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
The eyespots on its wings may trick birds into pecking at the wing instead of its body.
It is often seen near field gates, because they are usually in hedges, its favourite place.
A colony can have just a few dozen butterflies or several thousand.
Males have a dark patch on their front wings with special scales that give off a smell to attract females.
In Britain it has been spreading farther north over the last 30 years.
Most asked questions about Gatekeeper butterfly
?Why is it called a gatekeeper?
It patrols hedges and woodland paths, and is often seen near field gates in the hedges.
?What does a gatekeeper butterfly eat?
The butterfly drinks nectar from flowers like bramble. The caterpillars eat grasses.
?How is it different from a meadow brown?
The gatekeeper is smaller and more orange, often rests with open wings, and has two white dots in each eyespot.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Pyronia tithonus
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1771
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Nymphalidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
- Lives on
- Europe
- Also known as
- Hedge brown, Gatekeeper
Where the facts come from
- Gatekeeper (butterfly) (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 Charles J. Sharp. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this 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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