Harris's checkerspot
Harris's checkerspot is a small orange butterfly with black markings, like a little checkerboard. Underneath, its back wings have a red-orange stripe and a pattern of orange, white and black. It loves wet meadows and bogs.
How big is it?
How wide are its wings?
How big is Harris's checkerspot compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
It looks so much like its cousin, the silvery checkerspot, that people often mix them up.
The adults fly only once a year, in June and July.
The mother lays her eggs in a cluster under the leaves of the white aster.
The caterpillar spends the winter resting before it grows up in spring.
It is believed to have disappeared from the US state of Connecticut.
Most asked questions about Harris's checkerspot
?What does Harris's checkerspot eat?
The butterfly drinks flower nectar. The caterpillar eats the leaves of the flat-topped white aster.
?How big is Harris's checkerspot?
Its wings measure about 3.6 to 5.1 centimetres from tip to tip.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Chlosyne harrisii
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Nymphalidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Chlosyne harrisii (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 D. Gordon E. Robertson. CC BY-SA 3.0, 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
Maple callus borer moth
Mottled rustic
Iberian mantis
Clay-colored leaf beetle
Violet black-legged robber fly
Spurred ridgeback