Schrenck's emperor is an East Asian emperor butterfly with blackish-brown wings, a broad white band on the hindwing edged in iridescent blue, and a silvery pale-blue underside. It lives in the Russian Far East, northeastern China, and Korea, and is not found in the United States.
Appearance
- Appearance
- Blackish-brown above with white forewing spots and a broad white hindwing band edged in shimmering blue. Females are larger and duller, with a greenish sheen. The hindwing underside is pale blue with a silvery gloss, crossed by an olive-brown band.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Deciduous forest
- Forest trails
- Streamsides
- Range
- From the Amur and Ussuri regions of Russia through northeastern China to Korea; a separate subspecies lives in Yunnan, China. It does not occur in North America.
- Preferred conditions
- Deciduous and mixed forests that include elms.
Behavior
- Activity
- Adults fly in summer, with one generation a year. Males often land on damp ground by streams and visit tree sap and rotting matter.
- Overwintering
- Young caterpillars spend the winter on twigs and branch forks of the food tree.
Life cycle
- Larva
- The caterpillar is pale green with small bumps, and the chrysalis hangs from a leaf.
- Caterpillar food plants
- Caterpillars feed on elms (Ulmus); in Korea they also eat Japanese zelkova, and in Russia hornbeam has been recorded.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
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