Stats

Lifespan: A few weeks
Size: Small
Diet: Herbivore
Activity: Diurnal
Social: Solitary
Biome: Temperate forest
Range: Palearctic
Movement: Flight
Breeding: Egg-laying
Defense: Camouflage
Status: Common

About

The Speckled Wood is a woodland butterfly famous for its territorial perch-and-wait strategy — males stake out sunlit gaps in the canopy and spiral upward in aerial jousts with rivals. Its dappled brown and cream wing pattern provides near-perfect camouflage against the leaf-dappled forest floor.

Life cycle

1.
egg
A tiny ribbed egg laid on the underside of a host-plant leaf, hatching within days.
2.
caterpillar
A voracious caterpillar feeds and molts through several instars, growing rapidly.
3.
chrysalis
A chrysalis hangs sealed and still while the body remodels into a winged adult.
4.
butterfly
A winged adult with full scales and coloration, ready to fly and mate.

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Taxonomy

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Nymphalidae
Genus: Pararge
Species: Pararge aegeria