Malayan
Megisba malaya
The Malayan is a small brown butterfly with snow-white undersides covered in little brown and black spots. Some have a tiny thread-like tail on each back wing, but many do not. It flies a lot like another butterfly called the Quaker.
Lives in
South and Southeast Asia, from Sri Lanka and India to Myanmar
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Like other small blue butterflies, the grown-ups sip nectar from flowers.
How fast is it?
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Malayan about 15 km/h (9.3 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
It looks different in the wet season and the dry season.
2
The female has broader, rounder front wings than the male.
3
Its antennae are dark brown with thin white rings.
4
It also lives on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
you asked
Most asked questions about Malayan
?Is the Malayan butterfly rare?
Usually not, but in some places it can be less common or even rare.
?Where does the Malayan live?
In Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Megisba malaya
- Named by
- Horsfield
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Lycaenidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Lycaenidae
- Lives on
- Asia
Where the facts come from
- Megisba malaya (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 Charles J. Sharp. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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