Red Admiral

Description

The red admiral occurs in all of Europe and through North Africa to Asia Minor, Iran and in Eastern Russia. It is easily recognized on its pretty look with the black ground, the white spots and the shining orange band. The  red admiral is a large butterfly with a wing span of 55-70 mm.

The red admiral is a migrant, and in Denmark we find it everywhere in parks and gardens with stinging nettles, which are the preferred food of the red admiral, and on which it lays its eggs. The red admiral is moreover drawn by lately flowering plant as thistle and hemp agrimony and by the fallen yeasty fruit of the orchards. It can be quite intoxicated by these fruits, and when being in that condition we can easily creep up on the red admiral.

The red admiral arrives in Denmark every year during June and July, it lays eggs in this country too and the number of new butterflies thus peaks in August, and the red admiral is therefore most numerous late in the summer.

It happens that the red admiral spends the winter, if the winter is a mild one, and it sits down on twigs and trunks freely exposed for its hibernation, and thus the red admiral is not shy of human beings.