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Sticker of Marbled fritillary
Bug card No. 2750 of 4,939

Marbled fritillary

Brenthis daphne
Name means: “named after Daphne, a nymph of springs and streams in Greek myths”
Eats: Nectar and pollenButterfliesForests and woods6 legs

The marbled fritillary is a bright orange butterfly with black spots and rather round wings. Underneath, its back wings are washed with purple in a swirly pattern, like marble. It flutters along sunny forest edges.

Lives in
Southern and central Europe across Asia to Korea and Japan, at sunny forest edges and bushy places
Wingspan
3 to 4.4 cm (1.2 to 1.7 in)
Top speed
about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Butterflies cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The butterfly drinks nectar from brambles, thistles and other flowers. Its caterpillars eat brambles, raspberries and meadowsweet.
For real!Photo of Marbled fritillary
Picture by Hectonichus. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Marbled fritillary wings about 4.4 cm tip to tip (1.7 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 7 grains of rice in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 29 seconds

How big is Marbled fritillary compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

1

The tiny caterpillar spends the whole winter inside its egg shell.

2

The female lays her eggs one by one on leaves in July.

3

Its chrysalis has two rows of little thorns with bright spots and a shiny metal look.

4

It looks almost like the lesser marbled fritillary, which is a bit smaller.

you asked

Most asked questions about Marbled fritillary

?Why is it called the marbled fritillary?

The underside of its back wings has a swirly purple pattern that looks like marble.

?What does the marbled fritillary eat?

The butterfly drinks nectar. The caterpillars eat brambles, raspberries and meadowsweet.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Brenthis daphne
Group
Butterflies
Family
Nymphalidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
Lives on
Europe, Asia

Where the facts come from

  1. Brenthis daphne (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 Hectonichus. 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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