Silver-studded leafwing
Hypna clytemnestra
The silver-studded leafwing is a big butterfly with black front wings and wide white bands. When it closes its wings, the underside looks just like a dead leaf. That is a clever way to hide.
Lives in
From Mexico to the Amazon, in lowlands and hills
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Butterflies cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The grown-ups eat rotting fruit. The caterpillars eat the leaves of a Croton tree.
How fast is it?
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Silver-studded leafwing about 15 km/h (9.3 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
It is the biggest member of its butterfly group.
2
It is the only species in its genus, so it has no close sisters.
3
It lives from about 100 to 1,200 metres above the sea.
4
Cuba put it on a postage stamp.
you asked
Most asked questions about Silver-studded leafwing
?Why is it called a leafwing?
Because the underside of its wings looks like a dead leaf, which helps it hide.
?What does the silver-studded leafwing eat?
The butterflies eat rotting fruit, and the caterpillars eat leaves.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Hypna clytemnestra
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Nymphalidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
- Lives on
- North America, South America
- Also known as
- Jazzy leafwing, Marbled leafwing
Where the facts come from
- Hypna (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 Greg Hume. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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