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Sticker of Mimosa yellow
Bug card No. 2876 of 4,939

Mimosa yellow

Eurema nise
Eats: Nectar and pollenButterfliesRainforests and jungles6 legs

The mimosa yellow is a small bright yellow butterfly with thin black edges on its front wings. Both males and females are yellow. It lives in warm places from Argentina up to Texas and Florida.

Lives in
From Argentina to Texas and Florida, along the edges of bushy woods
Wingspan
2.9 to 5.1 cm (1.1 to 2 in)
Top speed
about 14 km/h (8.7 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The grown-ups drink nectar from flowers. The caterpillars eat the sensitive plant, whose leaves fold up when you touch them.
For real!Photo of Mimosa yellow
Picture by Charles J. Sharp. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Mimosa yellow wings about 5.1 cm tip to tip (2 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 1.5 toy building brickscould fly across a whole football pitch in 27 seconds

How big is Mimosa yellow compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its caterpillars eat Mimosa pudica, the famous plant that folds its leaves when touched.

2

In the tropics it can be seen flying all year round.

3

Females never have black edges on their back wings, and males rarely do.

you asked

Most asked questions about Mimosa yellow

?Why is it called the mimosa yellow?

Because it is yellow and its caterpillars eat a mimosa plant.

?Where does the mimosa yellow live?

From Argentina up to Texas and Florida, at the edges of bushy woods.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Eurema nise
Group
Butterflies
Family
Pieridae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Pieridae
Lives on
South America, North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Pyrisitia nise (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 Charles J. Sharp. 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: Rainforests and jungles

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