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Sticker of Smooth-eyed bushbrown
Bug card No. 3961 of 4,939

Smooth-eyed bushbrown

Orsotriaena medus
Eats: PlantsButterfliesGardens and meadows6 legs

The smooth-eyed bushbrown is a dark brown butterfly that lives in grassy places. On top its wings are plain brown, but underneath they have a white band and five round eyespots. It is shy and likes to stay low among the plants.

Lives in
South and Southeast Asia, New Guinea and Australia, in grassy places
Wingspan
4.5 to 5.5 cm (1.8 to 2.2 in)
Top speed
about 14 km/h (8.7 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The mother lays her eggs on grass, and her caterpillars grow up on grasses.
For real!Photo of Smooth-eyed bushbrown
Picture by Charles J. Sharp. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Smooth-eyed bushbrown wings about 5.5 cm tip to tip (2.2 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 1.5 toy building brickscould fly across a whole football pitch in 27 seconds

How big is Smooth-eyed bushbrown compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its pupa looks like a big grain of barley or a tiny banana.

2

Its caterpillar is rosy red on top and green underneath, with two brown spines on its head pointing forward.

3

It is a weak flier. When something disturbs it, it flutters a short way and lands again.

4

When it suns itself, it lines its body up with the sun's rays.

5

It lives in grassy places up to 1,600 metres high.

you asked

Most asked questions about Smooth-eyed bushbrown

?Where does the smooth-eyed bushbrown live?

In grassy places in South and Southeast Asia, New Guinea and Australia.

?How big is the smooth-eyed bushbrown?

Its wings measure 4.5 to 5.5 centimetres from tip to tip.

?Is the smooth-eyed bushbrown dangerous?

No. It is a shy, harmless butterfly.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Orsotriaena medus
Named by
Fabricius, 1775
Group
Butterflies
Family
Nymphalidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
Lives on
Asia, Australia and Oceania
Also known as
Medus brown, Dark grass-brown

Where the facts come from

  1. Orsotriaena (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 Charles J. Sharp. CC BY-SA 4.0, 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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