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Sticker of Imperial jezebel
Bug card No. 2330 of 4,939

Imperial jezebel

Delias harpalyce
Eats: Nectar and pollenButterfliesForests and woods6 legs

The imperial jezebel is a white butterfly with black edges on its wings. Underneath, its wings are chequered black and white, with a yellow band and a bright red band. It lives only in Australia.

Lives in
Southeastern Australia, in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, in eucalyptus forests
Wingspan
6 to 7 cm (2.4 to 2.8 in)
Top speed
about 16 km/h (9.9 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The grown-ups gather around flowering trees for nectar. The caterpillars eat mistletoe plants.
For real!Photo of Imperial jezebel
Picture by Neil Hamilton Mansfield. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Imperial jezebel wings about 7 cm tip to tip (2.8 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 2 toy building brickscould fly across a whole football pitch in 24 seconds

How big is Imperial jezebel compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its caterpillars are black with white hairs and live together in a group.

2

The caterpillars spin a silk web on the mistletoe plants they eat.

3

It usually flies high up in eucalyptus forests.

4

In spring it gathers around flowering fruit trees.

5

Females have wider black edges on their wings than males.

you asked

Most asked questions about Imperial jezebel

?Where does the imperial jezebel live?

Only in Australia, in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

?What do imperial jezebel caterpillars eat?

They eat mistletoe plants and spin a silk web on them.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Delias harpalyce
Group
Butterflies
Family
Pieridae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Pieridae
Lives on
Australia and Oceania
Also known as
Imperial white

Where the facts come from

  1. Delias harpalyce (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 Neil Hamilton Mansfield. 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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