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Sticker of Common beak
Bug card No. 0996 of 4,939

Common beak

Libythea lepita
Eats: Nectar and pollenButterfliesForests and woods6 legs

The common beak is a brown butterfly with orange-yellow stripes and patches, and small white spots near its wing tips. Its underside can be plain brown or grey, and every butterfly looks a little different there.

Lives in
Asia, from southern India and the Himalayas to China and Japan
Top speed
about 15 km/h (9.3 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 hackberry trees and their cousins, Trema trees. The grown-up butterflies sip nectar like other butterflies.
For real!Photo of Common beak
Picture by KENPEI. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Scientists used to think it was just a kind of the European beak butterfly. Now it counts as its own species.

2

Its caterpillars feed on hackberry trees, which belong to the same plant family as hops.

3

It lives in a long stretch of Asia, from southern India and the Himalayas all the way to Japan.

4

On the underside, some have no markings at all, while others have dark and light bands.

you asked

Most asked questions about Common beak

?Where does the common beak live?

In Asia, from southern India and the Himalayas to China and Japan.

?What does the common beak eat?

Its caterpillars eat the leaves of hackberry and Trema trees. The grown-ups drink nectar.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Libythea lepita
Named by
Moore
Group
Butterflies
Family
Nymphalidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
Lives on
Asia

Where the facts come from

  1. Libythea lepita (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 KENPEI. 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: Forests and woods

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