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Sticker of Sagebrush checkerspot
Bug card No. 3722 of 4,939

Sagebrush checkerspot

Chlosyne acastus
Eats: Nectar and pollenButterfliesDeserts and dry places6 legs

The sagebrush checkerspot is a butterfly from western North America. Its wings are covered in a pattern of little squares, like a checkerboard. It looks so much like two of its cousins that even experts can mix them up.

Lives in
Western North America, from the western United States east to Nebraska and north to Alberta in Canada
Wingspan
3.3 to 4.4 cm (1.3 to 1.7 in)
Top speed
about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Butterflies cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Like other butterflies, the grown-ups drink sweet liquids through a long tongue. The caterpillars eat bushy plants called rabbitbrush and desert-aster.
For real!Photo of Sagebrush checkerspot
Picture by Pacific Southwest Region U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Sagebrush checkerspot wings about 4.4 cm tip to tip (1.7 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 7 grains of rice in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 29 seconds

How big is Sagebrush checkerspot compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It is easy to mix up with the northern checkerspot and Hoffmann's checkerspot.

2

In Canada it has one flying season a year, somewhere between May and early September.

3

Its caterpillars grow up on rabbitbrush, a tough little bush of dry country.

you asked

Most asked questions about Sagebrush checkerspot

?How big is the sagebrush checkerspot?

Its open wings are about 3 to 4.5 centimetres across.

?Where does the sagebrush checkerspot live?

In western North America, from the western United States up to southern Alberta in Canada.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Chlosyne acastus
Group
Butterflies
Family
Nymphalidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
Lives on
North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Chlosyne acastus (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 Pacific Southwest Region U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Public domain, 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: Deserts and dry places

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