Phoebus Apollo
The Phoebus Apollo is a white butterfly that lives high up in the mountains. It has black markings and bright red eye spots on its back wings. Parts of its wings are see-through like glass.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
It lives high in the mountains, mostly between 1800 and 2200 metres up.
It likes damp places, like the edges of mountain streams and springs.
The females have bigger, clearer markings than the males.
Scientists have named a very long list of subspecies, because it looks a little different in each mountain area.
Most asked questions about Phoebus Apollo
?Where does the Phoebus Apollo live?
High in the mountains of Europe, Asia and North America, near streams and springs.
?What does its caterpillar eat?
Saxifrages, stonecrops and houseleeks, small plants that grow on mountains.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Parnassius phoebus
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Papilionidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Papilionidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, North America
- Also known as
- Small Apollo
Where the facts come from
- Parnassius phoebus (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 Michael Kurz. CC BY-SA 3.0 at, 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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