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Sticker of Diana fritillary
Bug card No. 0405 of 1,500

Diana fritillary

Speyeria diana
Eats: Nectar and pollenButterfliesForests and woods6 legs

The Diana fritillary is a butterfly where boys and girls look like two different kinds. The boy is dark with bright orange edges on his wings. The girl is bigger and dark blue. It lives in woodlands in the south and east of North America.

Lives in
Southern and eastern United States, in wooded hills and mountains
Top speed
about 15 km/h (9.3 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The butterflies drink flower nectar and sometimes sip from dung. The caterpillars eat violet leaves.
For real!Photo of Diana fritillary
Picture by Meganmccarty. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It became the official state butterfly of Arkansas in 2007.

2

The mother does not lay her eggs on the plant. She scatters them on the ground around the violets.

3

The tiny caterpillars dig into the ground to spend the winter and come out in spring.

4

Changing weather and lost forests are making it harder for this butterfly to survive.

you asked

Most asked questions about Diana fritillary

?What does the Diana fritillary eat?

The butterflies drink nectar. The caterpillars eat violet leaves.

?Why do boy and girl Diana fritillaries look different?

Boys are dark and orange, while girls are bigger and dark blue. Many butterflies have boys and girls with different colours.

?Where does the Diana fritillary live?

In woods in the southern and eastern United States, such as the Appalachian Mountains and Arkansas.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Speyeria diana
Group
Butterflies
Family
Nymphalidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
Lives on
North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Diana fritillary (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 Meganmccarty. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.

More from the same group: Butterflies

Also at home here: Forests and woods