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Sticker of Tawny rajah
Bug card No. 4303 of 4,939

Tawny rajah

Charaxes bernardus
Eats: PlantsButterfliesRainforests and jungles6 legs

The tawny rajah is a butterfly with orange-brown wings and dark speckled tips. Underneath, its wings are speckled brown with pale zigzag bands. Boys and girls look almost the same.

Lives in
India, China and South-east Asia to Indonesia, in forests
Wingspan
7 to 9 cm (2.8 to 3.5 in)
Top speed
about 18 km/h (11 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Its caterpillars eat the leaves of many trees, such as camphor trees and tamarind. Adults sip water and minerals from wet mud.
For real!Photo of Tawny rajah
Picture by D. Gordon E. Robertson. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Tawny rajah 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 Tawny rajah compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It likes to sit on wet mud and sip from it, which is called mud-puddling.

2

In South India it has been seen travelling long distances.

3

Its caterpillars can eat leaves of camphor trees, tamarind and many other trees.

4

More than 20 different kinds of it live on different islands and countries.

you asked

Most asked questions about Tawny rajah

?What does the tawny rajah eat?

Its caterpillars eat leaves of trees like camphor and tamarind. Adults sip from wet mud.

?How big is the tawny rajah?

Its wings measure about 7 to 9 centimetres from tip to tip.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Charaxes bernardus
Group
Butterflies
Family
Nymphalidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
Lives on
Asia

Where the facts come from

  1. Charaxes bernardus (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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More from the same group: Butterflies

Also at home here: Rainforests and jungles

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