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Sticker of Northern checkerspot
Bug card No. 3024 of 4,939

Northern checkerspot

Chlosyne palla
Eats: PlantsButterfliesGardens and meadows6 legs

The northern checkerspot is a butterfly with a checkered pattern of dark brown, light orange and tan, like a little quilt. Underneath, its wings have rows of red and yellow squares. It lives in western North America.

Lives in
Western North America, from British Columbia to California and Colorado
Wingspan
3 to 4.8 cm (1.2 to 1.9 in)
Top speed
about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Its caterpillars eat goldenrod, rabbitbrush and asters.
For real!Photo of Northern checkerspot
Picture by Ingrid Taylar. CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Northern checkerspot wings about 4.8 cm tip to tip (1.9 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)
wings as wide as 1.5 toy building brickscould fly across a whole football pitch in 29 seconds

How big is Northern checkerspot compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It is easy to mix up with two very similar cousins, the sagebrush checkerspot and Hoffmann's checkerspot.

2

It flies once a year, from April to May, or until July high in the mountains.

3

Its wings measure about 3 to 5 centimetres from tip to tip.

you asked

Most asked questions about Northern checkerspot

?What does the northern checkerspot eat?

Its caterpillars eat goldenrod, rabbitbrush and asters.

?Where does the northern checkerspot live?

In western North America, from southern Canada to California and Colorado.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Chlosyne palla
Group
Butterflies
Family
Nymphalidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
Lives on
North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Chlosyne palla (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Ingrid Taylar. CC BY 2.0, 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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