Common pierrot
Common pierrot caterpillars grow up feeding only on jujube leaves, yet the adult darts and zigzags between flowers faster than almost any other small blue butterfly.
| Where | Wasteland, scrub and flower gardens |
|---|---|
| Size | 24 to 32 mm wingspan |
| When | January to December |
The Common pierrot is a small black and white butterfly, the white ground colour broken by black spots and a black edged margin, with a short tail on each hindwing. Females carry broader black markings than males on both wing surfaces.
Caterpillars feed on jujube and other Ziziphus shrubs, and adults fly with an extremely fast, jerky, acrobatic flight between wastelands, open scrub and flowering gardens across South and Southeast Asia.
Traits
Habitat
Garden
Colour
Black, White, Blue
Active
Day
To people
Harmless to handle; a fast, erratic flier rarely still for long.
Activity through the year
Often confused with
Pierrots in the genus Tarucus carry an overall blue violet flush across the wings, giving them their common name of blue pierrots, while the Common pierrot is white with black spots and only a small patch of metallic blue scaling at the wing base.
Questions
Is the Common pierrot dangerous to people?
Harmless to handle; a fast, erratic flier rarely still for long.
When can you see the Common pierrot?
The Common pierrot can be seen from January to December, by day.
Plate retouched from a museum specimen photo by Swiss Natural History Collections - SwissNatColl, CC BY 4.0, GBIF Licence
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Butterflies and moths›Blues and coppers›Castalius
Last updated 2026-09-27. Every entry is checked against published sources.