Compton tortoiseshell
The Compton tortoiseshell is a big orange brown butterfly with black patches and a white spot near each wing tip. Underneath, its wings are mottled grey and brown like tree bark. It lives in forests across the northern half of the world.
How big is it?
How wide are its wings?
How big is Compton tortoiseshell compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Under its back wing it has a small white V mark, like the comma butterfly, so it is also called the false comma.
The mother lays her eggs in one clump, and the caterpillars eat together until they turn into pupae.
It likes to sip sweet juice from rotting fruit.
The butterflies fly from July to November.
Most asked questions about Compton tortoiseshell
?What does the Compton tortoiseshell eat?
The butterfly drinks tree sap, rotting fruit juice and willow nectar. Its caterpillars eat willow, poplar and birch.
?Why is it called the false comma?
Because of a little white V mark under its wing that looks like the mark of the comma butterfly.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Nymphalis l-album
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Nymphalidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
- Lives on
- North America, Europe, Asia
- Also known as
- False comma
Where the facts come from
- Nymphalis vaualbum (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 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.
Bug Wiki honey jar For grown-ups: Bug Wiki is free, with no ads and no tracking. A small tip helps keep it online.Leave a tip
Monarch butterfly
Peacock butterfly
Blue morpho
Old World swallowtail
Small white
Eastern tiger swallowtail
Spotted thintail
Compact carpenter ant
Small Quaker
Large black kekerengu
Harris's three-spot
Mountain banded snail