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Sticker of Sahyadri blue oakleaf
Bug card No. 3725 of 4,939

Sahyadri blue oakleaf

Kallima horsfieldii
Eats: PlantsButterfliesForests and woods6 legs

The Sahyadri blue oakleaf is a butterfly with a wonderful disguise. When it closes its wings, the underside looks just like a dry brown leaf, with a line down the middle like a leaf vein. When it opens them, the top side is a brilliant deep blue.

Lives in
The Western Ghats mountains of India, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, in forests
Wingspan
8.4 to 12 cm (3.3 to 4.7 in)
Top speed
about 21 km/h (13 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It is a gentle butterfly that hides by pretending to be a leaf.
What does it eat?
Its caterpillar eats the leaves of plants from the acanthus family, such as strobilanthes bushes.
For real!Photo of Sahyadri blue oakleaf
Picture by Dr. Raju Kasambe. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Sahyadri blue oakleaf wings about 12 cm tip to tip (4.7 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 your handcould fly across a whole football pitch in 18 seconds

How big is Sahyadri blue oakleaf compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its wings measure 84 to 120 millimetres from tip to tip.

2

It looks different in the dry season and the wet season. In the dry season the blue band on its front wing turns white at one end.

3

Its caterpillar is golden brown with red, branching spines and a black head with two long horns.

4

Its chrysalis is earthy brown with a pinkish tinge, so it blends in too.

you asked

Most asked questions about Sahyadri blue oakleaf

?Why does the blue oakleaf look like a leaf?

When it sits with its wings closed, it looks just like a dry leaf, so birds do not notice it.

?How big is the Sahyadri blue oakleaf?

Its wings are 84 to 120 millimetres across.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Kallima horsfieldii
Group
Butterflies
Family
Nymphalidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
Lives on
Asia
Also known as
Blue oakleaf, Southern blue oakleaf

Where the facts come from

  1. Kallima horsfieldii (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 Dr. Raju Kasambe. 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

Also at home here: Forests and woods

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