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Sticker of Woodland grayling
Bug card No. 4828 of 4,939

Woodland grayling

Hipparchia fagi
Name means: “Its scientific name fagi means of the beech, because it often lives in beech woods.”
Eats: PlantsButterfliesForests and woods6 legs

The woodland grayling is a large brown butterfly with a white band and a black eye spot on each front wing. When it sits on a tree trunk with its wings closed, it almost disappears. Its marbled underside looks just like bark.

Lives in
Southern half of Europe to western Siberia, in woods and woodland glades
Wingspan
6.6 to 7.6 cm (2.6 to 3 in)
Top speed
about 17 km/h (11 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The caterpillar eats grasses.
For real!Photo of Woodland grayling
Picture by Joan Carles Hinojosa Galisteo. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Woodland grayling wings about 7.6 cm tip to tip (3 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 2.5 toy building brickscould fly across a whole football pitch in 22 seconds

How big is Woodland grayling compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

When its wings are closed, it hides its eye spots, so it is hard to spot on bark.

2

It flies from June to September, sometimes even into October.

3

Its caterpillar spends the winter as a caterpillar.

4

It lives from the seaside up to 2,000 metres high in the mountains.

you asked

Most asked questions about Woodland grayling

?Where can I see a woodland grayling?

In woods and woodland clearings in southern Europe, resting on tree trunks.

?What does the woodland grayling caterpillar eat?

Different kinds of grass.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Hipparchia fagi
Named by
Scopoli, 1763
Group
Butterflies
Family
Nymphalidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
Lives on
Europe, Asia

Where the facts come from

  1. Hipparchia fagi (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 Joan Carles Hinojosa Galisteo. 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.

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More from the same group: Butterflies

Also at home here: Forests and woods

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