Brown longtail
Spicauda procne
The brown longtail is a brown skipper, a kind of butterfly with a thick body and quick, darting flight. Like other longtails, its back wings end in long tails. It lives in warm places from Argentina up to Texas.
Lives in
From Argentina through Central America and Mexico to southern Texas
Wingspan
3.7 to 4.8 cm (1.5 to 1.9 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It is a butterfly that cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Like other butterflies, the grown-up sips nectar. The caterpillars eat grasses, such as Bermuda grass and Johnson grass.
How big is it?
How wide are its wings?
🧱wings as wide as 1.5 toy building bricks⚽could fly across a whole football pitch in 9.9 seconds
How big is Brown longtail compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
Brown longtail about 38 km/h (24 mph)
A car driving in town about 50 km/h (31 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
Its wings are about 4 to 5 centimetres from tip to tip.
2
In southern Texas there are three families of young each year.
3
Once in a while one wanders as far as New Mexico, Arizona or southern California.
you asked
Most asked questions about Brown longtail
?What does the brown longtail eat?
Its caterpillars eat grasses like Bermuda grass and Johnson grass.
?Where does the brown longtail live?
From Argentina through Central America and Mexico to southern Texas.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Spicauda procne
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Hesperiidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Hesperiidae
- Lives on
- South America, North America
Where the facts come from
- Spicauda procne (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 Anne Toal from US. 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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