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Sticker of Orange mapwing
Bug card No. 3131 of 4,939

Orange mapwing

Hypanartia lethe
Name means: “the underside of its wings looks like a map of hills and mountains”
Eats: PlantsButterfliesForests and woods6 legs

The orange mapwing is a butterfly with black and orange-brown wings. Each back wing ends in two little tails. Underneath, its wings are covered in fine wavy lines.

Lives in
From Texas and Mexico through Central and South America to Argentina, in mountain forests
Wingspan
4 to 5 cm (1.6 to 2 in)
Top speed
about 14 km/h (8.7 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Its caterpillars eat plants from the nettle family and a few kinds of trees.
For real!Photo of Orange mapwing
Picture by Lsadonkey. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Orange mapwing wings about 5 cm tip to tip (2 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 27 seconds

How big is Orange mapwing compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

The tails on its back wings can be long or short.

2

It lives in the mountains, in forests between 300 and 1,700 metres high.

3

It is common and lives in many countries, from Texas all the way to Argentina and Uruguay.

4

Its back wings have a row of black spots near the edge.

you asked

Most asked questions about Orange mapwing

?Why is it called the orange mapwing?

The underside of its wings has lines that look like a map of hills and mountains.

?How big is the orange mapwing?

Its wings measure about 4 to 5 centimetres from tip to tip.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Hypanartia lethe
Group
Butterflies
Family
Nymphalidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
Lives on
North America, South America
Also known as
Orange admiral

Where the facts come from

  1. Hypanartia lethe (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 Lsadonkey. 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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More from the same group: Butterflies

Also at home here: Forests and woods

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