Southern brown argus
Aricia cramera
The southern brown argus is a small brown butterfly with a band of orange spots along the edges of its wings. It lives in sunny southern Europe and North Africa. It is smaller than a matchbox when its wings are open.
Lives in
Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Tunisia, Mediterranean islands and the Canary Islands
Wingspan
3 cm (1.2 in)
up toCan it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The caterpillars eat wild geranium plants, storksbills and rockroses.
How big is it?
How wide are its wings?
🍚wings as wide as 5 grains of rice in a row⚽could fly across a whole football pitch in 34 seconds
How big is Southern brown argus compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
Southern brown argus about 11 km/h (6.8 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
Its wings measure up to 3 centimetres from tip to tip.
2
It flies from May to September, depending on where it lives.
3
On the Canary Islands the orange band on its wings can be very wide, like a neat stripe.
you asked
Most asked questions about Southern brown argus
?Where does the southern brown argus live?
In Spain, Portugal, North Africa and on islands like the Canary Islands.
?How big is the southern brown argus?
Its wings are up to 3 centimetres across.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Aricia cramera
- Named by
- Eschscholtz
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Lycaenidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Lycaenidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Africa
Where the facts come from
- Aricia cramera (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 J. Coelho. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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