Pale owl-butterfly
Caligo telamonius
The pale owl-butterfly is a big butterfly from the warm forests of the Americas. Owl butterflies have huge round spots on the underside of their wings that look like the eyes of an owl. That can scare away hungry birds.
Lives in
Southern North America, Central America and South America
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Butterflies cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The grown-up butterfly sips sweet juices with a long tongue that it rolls up like a garden hose.
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)
Pale owl-butterfly 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 was first described in 1862 by a father and son, Cajetan and Rudolf Felder.
2
There are two kinds of this butterfly, called memnon and menus.
3
It belongs to the brush-footed butterflies, whose front legs are so small that they walk on four legs.
you asked
Most asked questions about Pale owl-butterfly
?Why is it called an owl butterfly?
Because the big round spots on its wings look like the eyes of an owl.
?Where does the pale owl-butterfly live?
In the south of North America and in Central and South America.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Caligo telamonius
- Named by
- C. & R. Felder, 1862
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Nymphalidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
- Lives on
- North America, South America
Where the facts come from
- Caligo telamonius (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 James Telford. CC BY 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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