Freyer's purple emperor is a butterfly of riverside willow woods in southeastern Europe and northern Asia, including Korea and Japan; it does not live in the United States. Males shine bluish purple when light hits their wings at certain angles. The caterpillars feed on willows.
Appearance
- Appearance
- The upperside is dark brown with pale bands. Males show a bluish purple sheen from some angles.
Look-alikes
Lesser purple emperorApatura ilia
Look at the band across the hindwing: in Freyer's purple emperor its outer edge has a step-like bulge near the middle, which the lesser purple emperor lacks. Freyer's is also a little smaller.
Why they get mixed upBoth share the same basic pattern and purple sheen.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Willow woods along rivers
- Forest edges
- Range
- Found locally from southeastern Europe (Hungary and Croatia to Greece, Bulgaria, and Romania) east through southern Russia, Kazakhstan, and Siberia to Korea and Japan. It is not found in North America.
- Preferred conditions
- Lives in riverside woods and wetland edges where willows grow, in Europe up to about 2,100 ft (650 m).
Behavior
- Diet
- Adults rarely visit flowers. Males often land on wet ground along riverbanks and feed on moist soil, dung, or carrion.
- Activity
- In Europe there are one or two a year. Where there are two, adults fly from late May to late June and again from late July to early September. In southern Russia there is only one brood, in June and July.
- Overwintering
- Spends the winter as a small caterpillar, tucked into cracks in willow bark.
Life cycle
- Larva
- Females lay eggs singly or in small groups on willow leaves.
- Caterpillar food plants
- Willows; in Europe mainly white willow (Salix alba).
Name and classification
- About the name
- It was once treated as a subspecies of the lesser purple emperor (Apatura ilia) but is now considered a separate species.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
- Status
- It is one of Europe's rarer butterflies and is strictly protected there.
More species to explore
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