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Sticker of Great orange-tip
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Great orange-tip

Hebomoia glaucippe
Eats: Nectar and pollenButterfliesRainforests and jungles6 legs

The great orange-tip is a big white butterfly with bright orange-red patches on the tips of its front wings. The orange is framed with black, like a little painted triangle. It lives in warm parts of Asia.

Lives in
South and Southeast Asia, southern China and southern Japan
Top speed
about 15 km/h (9.3 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people. Just look and let it fly on.
What does it eat?
Like other butterflies, the grown-up drinks sweet nectar from flowers. Its green caterpillars eat the leaves of caper plants.
For real!Photo of Great orange-tip
Picture by Hectonichus. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its wings hold a tiny bit of a poison like the one cone snails use. It helps keep hungry animals from eating it.

2

There are 28 different kinds of it, living on many different islands in Asia.

3

On one island the white on its wings is replaced by pure yellow.

4

Butterflies that hatch in the rainy season look a little different from the ones that hatch in the dry season.

5

Its caterpillar is green and covered with tiny bumps.

you asked

Most asked questions about Great orange-tip

?Where does the great orange-tip live?

In South and Southeast Asia, southern China and southern Japan.

?What does the great orange-tip eat?

The butterfly drinks nectar from flowers, and the caterpillar eats leaves of caper plants.

?Is the great orange-tip poisonous?

Its wings have a little poison to stop animals from eating it, but it is harmless to people who just look at it.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Hebomoia glaucippe
Group
Butterflies
Family
Pieridae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Pieridae
Lives on
Asia

Where the facts come from

  1. Hebomoia glaucippe (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 Hectonichus. CC BY-SA 3.0, 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: Rainforests and jungles