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Sticker of Common three-ring
Bug card No. 1152 of 4,939

Common three-ring

Ypthima asterope
Eats: Nectar and pollenButterfliesDeserts and dry places6 legs

The common three-ring is a small butterfly from the dry lands of Africa and Asia. It belongs to a group of butterflies with eye-like rings on their wings. In southern Africa you can see it flying at any time of year.

Lives in
Dry parts of Africa and Asia, from southern Africa and Arabia to Turkey and India
Wingspan
3 to 3.8 cm (1.2 to 1.5 in)
Top speed
about 12 km/h (7.5 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Butterflies cannot bite or sting. Just enjoy watching it.
What does it eat?
Like most butterflies, it drinks sweet nectar from flowers. Its caterpillars eat grasses.
For real!Photo of Common three-ring
Picture by Zeynel Cebeci. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Common three-ring wings about 3.8 cm tip to tip (1.5 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 6 grains of rice in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 32 seconds

How big is Common three-ring compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

The females are a little bigger than the males. Their wings measure up to 38 millimetres across.

2

In southern Africa there are the most of them in summer and autumn.

3

Its caterpillars munch on grasses.

4

It has three subspecies, one in Arabia and northern Africa, one in India and one in southern Africa.

you asked

Most asked questions about Common three-ring

?Where does the common three-ring live?

In dry parts of Africa and Asia, from southern Africa to Turkey and India.

?How big is the common three-ring?

Its wingspan is 30 to 38 mm.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Ypthima asterope
Group
Butterflies
Family
Nymphalidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
Lives on
Africa, Asia
Also known as
African ringlet

Where the facts come from

  1. Ypthima asterope (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 Zeynel Cebeci. 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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Also at home here: Deserts and dry places

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