Freyer's purple emperor
Freyer's purple emperor is a forest butterfly with dark wings and orange bands. The male has a magic trick: when you look at him from the right angle, his wings flash bluish purple. Its body is covered in reddish hairs on top and white hairs underneath.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
It is one of the rarest animals in Europe and is strictly protected there.
The Gemenc forest in southern Hungary is its biggest home, and there you can see many of them.
The female spends most of her life up in the leaves of trees.
It looks a lot like the lesser purple emperor, but has a little step in the pale band on its back wings.
In Europe it usually has one family of babies a year, and sometimes two.
Most asked questions about Freyer's purple emperor
?Is Freyer's purple emperor rare?
Yes. It is one of the rarest animals in Europe and is protected there.
?What does Freyer's purple emperor caterpillar eat?
Willow leaves.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Apatura metis
- Named by
- Freyer, 1829
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Nymphalidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Apatura metis (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 Kim Huskens. CC BY 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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