Widespread eighty-eight
The widespread eighty-eight is a small butterfly from Central and South America. Under its back wings there is a black and white pattern that looks like the number 88. Look closely and you can read it.
How big is it?
How wide are its wings?
How big is Widespread eighty-eight compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Its wings are about 3 to 4 centimetres from tip to tip.
Its caterpillars can eat the leaves of the cacao tree, where chocolate comes from.
It was first described in 1775 by the Dutch scientist Pieter Cramer.
There are 13 slightly different kinds of it in different countries, from Nicaragua to Brazil.
Most asked questions about Widespread eighty-eight
?Why is it called the eighty-eight?
Because the pattern under its wings looks like the number 88.
?Where does the eighty-eight butterfly live?
From Mexico down to Peru and Brazil.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Diaethria clymena
- Named by
- Cramer, 1775
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Nymphalidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
- Lives on
- North America, South America
- Also known as
- Cramer's eighty-eight
Where the facts come from
- Diaethria clymena (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 Geoff Gallice from Gainesville. CC BY 2.0, 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.
Bug Wiki honey jar For grown-ups: Bug Wiki is free, with no ads and no tracking. A small tip helps keep it online.Leave a tip
Monarch butterfly
Peacock butterfly
Blue morpho
Old World swallowtail
Small white
Eastern tiger swallowtail
White-cheeked carpenter
Owl moth
American dewdrop spider
Cocoa tussock moth
Veracruz red-rump tarantula
Costa Rican orangemouth tarantula