Small tortoiseshell

Its scientific name authority is (Linnaeus, 1758), and it is also called the small tortoiseshell butterfly.

Weight

Not recorded

Length

Not recorded

Wingspan

4 cm – 5.75 cmsrc for Wingspan

Lifespan

Not recorded

Diet

Scavengersrc for Diet

Main food

flowerssrc for Main food

Habitat

forest, grassland, human_modified, shrublandsrc for Habitat

Young per litter or clutch

Not recorded

Litters or clutches a year

2src for Litters or clutches a year

Reproduction

Eggssrc for Reproduction

Active

By day (diurnal)src for Active

On the wing

All yearsrc for On the wing

Generations a year

Severalsrc for Generations a year

Larval food plants

Urticaceae familysrc for Larval food plants

Conservation status

Not recorded

Countries on record

Not recorded

Not recorded

No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.

1. kingdomAnimalia
2. phylumArthropoda
3. classInsecta
4. orderLepidoptera
5. familyNymphalidae
6. genusAglais
7. SpeciesAglais urticae (Linnaeus, 1758)

Synonyms Aglais adumbrata, Aglais alba, Aglais angustibalteata, Aglais atrebatensis, Aglais basimilberti, Aglais bolandii, Aglais brunneoviolacea, Aglais caerulapicata, Aglais chinensis, Aglais clarirufa, Aglais connexa, Aglais costadivisa, Aglais costajuncta, Aglais cuneatiguttata, Aglais discolor, Aglais expansa, Aglais fasciata, Aglais flavotessellata, Aglais fulva, Aglais fulvomarginata, Aglais griseomarginata, Aglais herrmanni, Aglais ichnusa, Aglais ichnusoides, Aglais ignea, Aglais implumis, Aglais infraradiata, Aglais infuscata, Aglais ioformis, Aglais ioprotoformis, Aglais latericolor, Aglais latibalteata, Aglais lutea, Aglais luteomarginata, Aglais maculomissa, Aglais magniguttata, Aglais magnilunulata, Aglais magninotata, Aglais magnipuncta, Aglais nigra, Aglais nigricaria, Aglais nigricostata, Aglais nigridorsata, Aglais nigrimarginata, Aglais nigrita, Aglais nubilata, Aglais obscura, Aglais ochrea, Aglais parviguttata, Aglais parvilunulata, Aglais parvinotata, Aglais parvipuncta, Aglais polaris, Aglais polychloroides, Aglais pseudoichnusa, Aglais punctijuncta, Aglais pygmaea, Aglais radiata, Aglais rubrochrea, Aglais salmonicolor, Aglais strandi, Aglais strigata, Aglais subtusbrunnescens, Aglais subtuslactea, Aglais subtusnigrescens, Aglais subtusochreabalteata, Aglais subtusrufa, Aglais subtusvenata, Aglais teruelensis, Aglais tripuncta, Aglais unipuncta, Aglais urticae ichnusa, Aglais urticae kansuensis, Aglais urticae urticae, Aglais urticoides, Alglais testudinea, Nymphalis urticae, Papilio ichnusa, Papilio urticae, Vanessa albapicata, Vanessa albidomaculata, Vanessa amploides, Vanessa bellieri, Vanessa bimaculata, Vanessa conjuncta, Vanessa consentanea, Vanessa cruenta, Vanessa dannenbergi, Vanessa derennei, Vanessa elisa, Vanessa erythrophaea, Vanessa extrema, Vanessa falcoides, Vanessa fasciata, Vanessa fervida, Vanessa flavofasciata, Vanessa grueti, Vanessa guhni, Vanessa ichnusa, Vanessa igneaformis, Vanessa impuncta, Vanessa kaiensis, Vanessa kansuensis, Vanessa kaschmirensis, Vanessa leodiensis, Vanessa lucia, Vanessa lucida, Vanessa luna, Vanessa lydiae, Vanessa mesoides, Vanessa monographa, Vanessa neurodes, Vanessa nixa, Vanessa osborni, Vanessa pseudoconnexa, Vanessa pseudoturcica, Vanessa repetita, Vanessa rosacea, Vanessa selysi, Vanessa semiichnusoides, Vanessa sordida, Vanessa splendens, Vanessa subtusornata, Vanessa subtuspuncta, Vanessa teloides, Vanessa thibetana, Vanessa transiens, Vanessa turica, Vanessa urticae, Vanessa victori, Vanessa xanthodes, Vanessa xantholeloena

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistITISTAXREFTAXREFWikidata

Peacock

Aglais io

Nymphalidae

M

Milbert's tortoiseshell

Aglais milberti

NymphalidaeNo free photo yet

C

Corsican small tortoiseshell

Aglais ichnusa

NymphalidaeNo free photo yet

I

Indian tortoiseshell

Aglais caschmirensis

NymphalidaeNo free photo yet

CompareSmall tortoiseshell vs PeacockSmall tortoiseshell vs Milbert's tortoiseshellSmall tortoiseshell vs Corsican small tortoiseshellSmall tortoiseshell vs Indian tortoiseshell

• Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
  Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf
• Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
  Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence).
• LepTraits 1.0: a globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
  Shirey, V., Larsen, E., Doherty, A. et al. (2022) LepTraits 1.0: a globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits. Scientific Data 9: 382. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01473-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.19874602.v1
• TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe · CC BY 4.0 · 2.0
  Chauvier, Y., Adde, A., Bergamini, A. et al. (2025) TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15063844
• Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
  Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service).
• Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
  Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).

@misc{small_tortoiseshell_2026,
  title = {Small tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/small-tortoiseshell},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}