📸 PhotoPhoto: Peellden · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Great purple emperor
Sasakia charonda (Great purple emperor · オオムラサキ)
Not Evaluated (NE) on the IUCN Red List yet.
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 A wingspan of 120 mm is slightly more than half the short side of an A4 sheet of paper (210 mm) (Comparison).
- 💡 The National List of Species of Korea notes that this butterfly readily gathers on the sap of oak and elm trees or on rotten fruit.
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
📖 1. Overview
The great purple emperor is the largest of the emperor butterflies, distributed throughout South Korea as well as in Japan, Taiwan, and China.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
Its wingspan is 100–120 mm. Males are smaller than females and have deep purple on the upper forewings and hindwings from the base to the center, whereas females have a black ground color on the upper side.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
It occurs once a year and appears from late June to late July. It gathers on oak and elm sap or rotten fruit, but does not visit flowers. Larvae feed on hackberry (Celtis sinensis and Celtis jessoensis) leaves and overwinter beneath fallen leaves as 3rd-instar larvae.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
The National List of Species of Korea records that it is distributed throughout South Korea and lives in coppice woodlands near villages.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List: not evaluated (NE) — cross-checked with the Wikidata conservation-status entry
- • catalogueoflife.org — 6Y2JF
- • 국가생물종목록(국립생물자원관) ktsn 120000035850 — https://species.nibr.go.kr/home/mainHome.do?cont_link=009&subMenu=009002&contCd=009002&ktsn=120000035850
- • wikidata.org — Q714716
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Sasakia charonda formosana male back 20140525.jpg
- • species.nibr.go.kr — mainHome.do
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — Mattia Menchetti · CC0 1.0 (Related taxon silhouette — Erebia)
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.