Small Tortoiseshell
Aglais urticae
Insecta
COMMON
Stats
- Lifespan
- A few months
- Size
- Small
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Activity
- Diurnal
- Social
- Solitary
- Biome
- Temperate grassland
- Range
- Eurasia
- Movement
- Flight
- Breeding
- Egg-laying
- Defense
- Warning Colors
- Status
- Common
About
The small tortoiseshell is a vivid orange butterfly trimmed with black, yellow, and iridescent blue wing-edge spots, found across Europe and temperate Asia. Unlike most insects, it overwinters as a fully formed adult, tucking into barns and hollow trees and sometimes emerging to fly on warm mid-winter days.
Life cycle
- 1.eggA tiny ribbed egg laid on the underside of a host-plant leaf, hatching within days.
- 2.caterpillarA voracious caterpillar feeds and molts through several instars, growing rapidly.
- 3.chrysalisA chrysalis hangs sealed and still while the body remodels into a winged adult.
- 4.butterflyA winged adult with full scales and coloration, ready to fly and mate.
Learn more
Taxonomy
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Arthropoda
- Class
- Insecta
- Order
- Lepidoptera
- Family
- Nymphalidae
- Genus
- Aglais
- Species
- Aglais urticae