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Purple emperor butterfly with open wings on an oak leaf

Purple emperor butterfly

The purple emperor is a large brown butterfly with iridescent wings that shine blue or purple in the light. Purple emperors do not feed from flowers. Instead they feed from honeydew secreted by aphids, and even from dung and rotting animal carcasses. Their caterpillars feed on pussy willow (sallow) plants.

Scientific name: Apatura iris

Rank: Species

Common names:

His Majesty

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Distribution

The Purple emperor butterfly can be found in a number of locations including: Europe, United Kingdom. Find out more about these places and what else lives there.

Habitats

The following habitats are found across the Purple emperor butterfly distribution range. Find out more about these environments, what it takes to live there and what else inhabits them.

Broadleaf forest Broadleaf forest
Broadleaf forests are the dominant habitat of the UK and most of temperate northern Europe. There's little left of Britain's ancient wildwood, but isolated pockets of oak, beech and mixed deciduous and evergreen woodlands are scattered across the continent, and dictate its biodiversity.

Behaviours

Discover what these behaviours are and how different plants and animals use them.

Additional data source: Animal Diversity Web

About

The Purple Emperor (Apatura iris) is a Eurasian butterfly of the Nymphalidae family. Adults have dark brown wings with white bands and spots, and a small orange ring on each of the hindwings. Males have a wingspan of 70–80mm, and have an iridescent purple-blue sheen that the slightly larger (80–92mm) females lack. The larvae (caterpillars) are green with white and yellow markings, and have two large ‘horns’ at the anterior end and a smaller one at the posterior.

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