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Sticker of Isabella's longwing
Bug card No. 2372 of 4,939

Isabella's longwing

Eueides isabella
Eats: Nectar and pollenButterfliesRainforests and jungles6 legs

Isabella's longwing is a big tropical butterfly with dark brown wings striped with orange bands. It lives high up in the treetops of the rainforest. Under its back wings it has a row of tiny blue spots.

Lives in
From Mexico to the Amazon and the Caribbean islands, in rainforests
Wingspan
6.5 to 9 cm (2.6 to 3.5 in)
Top speed
about 18 km/h (11 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The butterfly sips sweet nectar. Its caterpillars eat passionflower leaves.
For real!Photo of Isabella's longwing
Picture by NaturaLista.co user: juan_carlos_caicedo_hernandez. CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Isabella's longwing wings about 9 cm tip to tip (3.5 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 3 toy building brickscould fly across a whole football pitch in 21 seconds

How big is Isabella's longwing compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its caterpillars are white and black and covered with long black spines.

2

The caterpillars live together in groups.

3

In the warm tropics it flies all year round, and it keeps flying even when the light is dim.

4

It lives from the seaside up to about 1500 metres high in the mountains.

you asked

Most asked questions about Isabella's longwing

?Where does Isabella's longwing live?

In rainforests from Mexico to the Amazon and on Caribbean islands.

?How big is Isabella's longwing?

Its open wings measure about 6.5 to 9 cm across.

?What does the Isabella's longwing caterpillar eat?

The leaves of passionflower plants.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Eueides isabella
Group
Butterflies
Family
Nymphalidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
Lives on
North America, South America
Also known as
Isabella's heliconian

Where the facts come from

  1. Eueides isabella (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 NaturaLista.co user: juan_carlos_caicedo_hernandez. CC BY 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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More from the same group: Butterflies

Also at home here: Rainforests and jungles

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