Common alpine
Erebia epipsodea
The common alpine is a butterfly from the mountains and grassy plains of western North America. It flies in the middle of summer, when the meadows are full of flowers. Its caterpillars grow up munching on grass.
Lives in
North America, from Alaska down the Rocky Mountains to New Mexico and east to Manitoba, in grassy places
Wingspan
3.4 to 4.5 cm (1.3 to 1.8 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The grown-ups sip nectar from flowers. The caterpillars eat different kinds of grass.
How big is it?
How wide are its wings?
🍚wings as wide as 8 grains of rice in a row⚽could fly across a whole football pitch in 29 seconds
How big is Common alpine 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)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Common alpine about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
The butterflies fly only from mid-June to early August.
2
There are five slightly different kinds of it, living in different areas from Yukon to Colorado.
3
It looks a lot like another butterfly called Vidler's alpine.
you asked
Most asked questions about Common alpine
?What does the common alpine eat?
Its caterpillars eat grasses, and the grown-ups drink nectar from flowers.
?How big is the common alpine?
Its wings measure about 34 to 45 millimetres from tip to tip.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Erebia epipsodea
- Named by
- Butler, 1868
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Nymphalidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Erebia epipsodea (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 JerryFriedman. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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