The Common Beak is an Asian butterfly with an unusually long "snout" made of forward-pointing . It isn't found in the United States; the snout butterfly Americans see is its close relative the American Snout, which also raises its caterpillars on hackberries. The Common Beak lives in the Himalayas and East Asia, including China, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan.
Appearance
- Appearance
- Dark brown wings with orange-yellow markings and white spots near the forewing tip. The forewing has a squared-off, projecting edge, and the long palps stick out well in front of the head.
Look-alikes
American SnoutLibytheana carinenta
Location is the easiest clue: a snout butterfly seen wild in the US is the American Snout, since the Common Beak lives only in Asia.
Why they get mixed upBoth have long, beak-like palps, brown wings with orange and white markings, and squared-off forewing tips.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- woodland edges
- hills and lowlands
- Range
- The Himalayas and East Asia, including northern India, Myanmar, China, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan. It does not occur in the United States.
Behavior
- Activity
- In Korea and Japan, adults spend the winter as butterflies and are among the first to fly on warm early-spring days.
Life cycle
- Caterpillar food plants
- Caterpillars eat the leaves of plants in the hemp family, especially hackberries (Celtis) and Trema.
Name and classification
- About the name
- It used to be treated as an Asian form of the European Beak (Libythea celtis), so older books may list it under that name. Butterflies from southern India and Sri Lanka once included here are now placed with a different species.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
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