Variable checkerspot
The variable checkerspot is a butterfly with a checkered pattern of white, yellow and red spots on dark wings. It is called variable because it can look very different from place to place. Some are brick red, others yellow and black.
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Fun facts
Its caterpillars eat plants with bitter stuff in them, so the butterfly tastes bad to birds.
Its bright red colour warns birds to stay away.
In winter the caterpillars rest under bark, in hollow dry stems or in cracks in rocks.
High in the mountains a caterpillar can rest for several years before it changes.
A grown-up butterfly lives only about 15 days.
Most asked questions about Variable checkerspot
?Why is it called the variable checkerspot?
Because its colours change a lot from place to place, from brick red to yellow and black.
?Do birds eat variable checkerspots?
Not often. They taste bad, and their red colour warns birds to leave them alone.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Euphydryas chalcedona
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Nymphalidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Chalcedon checkerspot
Where the facts come from
- Variable checkerspot (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 Walter Siegmund (talk). CC BY 2.5, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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