Leopard lacewing butterfly
The leopard lacewing is a bright orange butterfly with black wing tips and a white bar on each front wing. Underneath, its wings are a colourful patchwork of red, white, pale blue, yellow and black. The female is pale greenish white instead of orange.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Its caterpillar is purplish black with yellow and crimson bands.
The caterpillar has two long spines on its head and rows of fine spines along its body.
In the last few decades it has spread south and only recently reached Singapore.
The edges of its wings have rows of white marks shaped like little moons.
Most asked questions about Leopard lacewing butterfly
?What does the leopard lacewing eat?
The butterflies drink nectar, and the caterpillars eat passion flower plants.
?Where does the leopard lacewing live?
From India to southern China and Indochina, and lately also in Malaysia and Singapore.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Cethosia cyane
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Nymphalidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
- Lives on
- Asia
- Also known as
- Leopard lacewing
Where the facts come from
- Cethosia cyane (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 No machine-readable author provided. Nature Loader assumed (based on copyright claims).. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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