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Sticker of Niobe fritillary
Bug card No. 3002 of 4,939

Niobe fritillary

Argynnis niobe
Name means: “named after Niobe, daughter of Tantalus in Greek myths”
Eats: Nectar and pollenButterfliesGardens and meadows6 legs

The Niobe fritillary is a bright orange-brown butterfly with black dots and stripes. Underneath, its back wings have little silvery spots that shine. It lives in sunny grassy places, even high up in the mountains.

Lives in
Most of Europe and across Asia to Korea
Wingspan
4.6 to 6 cm (1.8 to 2.4 in)
Top speed
about 15 km/h (9.3 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The butterflies drink nectar from flowers. The caterpillars eat violets and pansies, and sometimes ribwort plantain.
For real!Photo of Niobe fritillary
Picture by Zeynel Cebeci. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Niobe fritillary wings about 6 cm tip to tip (2.4 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 25 seconds

How big is Niobe fritillary compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It spends the winter as a tiny caterpillar still inside its egg shell.

2

The caterpillars hatch in March and are fully grown by June.

3

The caterpillar is dark with small white spots and white thorns.

4

It lives from the seaside up to 2,400 metres high in the mountains.

5

Females are a bit bigger than males and have bolder patterns.

you asked

Most asked questions about Niobe fritillary

?When does the Niobe fritillary fly?

From May to late August, with one family each year.

?What do Niobe fritillary caterpillars eat?

Mostly violets and pansies.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Argynnis niobe
Group
Butterflies
Family
Nymphalidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
Lives on
Europe, Asia

Where the facts come from

  1. Niobe fritillary (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 4.0, 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

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