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Sticker of Iphidamas cattleheart
Bug card No. 2368 of 4,939

Iphidamas cattleheart

Parides iphidamas
Eats: Nectar and pollenButterfliesRainforests and jungles6 legs

The Iphidamas cattleheart is a black butterfly from the warm parts of the Americas. It has green and white spots on its front wings and a bright red patch on its back wings. Even its black body has little red dots.

Lives in
From southern Mexico through Central America to Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, in forests and clearings
Wingspan
10 cm (3.9 in)
Top speed
about 19 km/h (12 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to touch, but do not eat it. Its caterpillars are poisonous, and birds learn to leave them alone.
What does it eat?
Grown-up butterflies drink nectar from flowers. The caterpillars eat poisonous pipevine plants.
For real!Photo of Iphidamas cattleheart
Picture by D. Gordon E. Robertson. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Iphidamas cattleheart wings about 10 cm tip to tip (3.9 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 your handcould fly across a whole football pitch in 20 seconds

How big is Iphidamas cattleheart compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its wings measure about 10 centimetres from tip to tip, about as wide as a grown-up's hand.

2

The female has pure white spots, while the male's spots are green and white.

3

Its caterpillar is chocolate brown with soft spikes that look like thorns, and it is poisonous.

4

It looks so much like two other cattleheart butterflies that even experts often mix them up.

you asked

Most asked questions about Iphidamas cattleheart

?Is the Iphidamas cattleheart poisonous?

Its caterpillars are poisonous because they eat poisonous pipevine plants. It is not dangerous to touch.

?Where does the Iphidamas cattleheart live?

From southern Mexico down to Peru, in lowlands, forest edges and tropical forests.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Parides iphidamas
Named by
Fabricius, 1793
Group
Butterflies
Family
Papilionidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Papilionidae
Lives on
North America, South America
Also known as
Transandean cattleheart

Where the facts come from

  1. Parides iphidamas (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 D. Gordon E. Robertson. CC BY-SA 3.0, 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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