Blue Nawab vs Northern Wood Ant

Side-by-side species comparison

Attribute Blue Nawab Northern Wood Ant
Scientific Name Polyura schreiber Formica aquilonia
Order Lepidoptera Hymenoptera
Family Nymphalidae Formicidae
Size 80-100 mm wingspan 4-8 mm
Habitat Forests Forests
Diet Dung Feeders Sap Feeders
Regions Southeast Asia (Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Myanmar) Scandinavia, Finland, northern Russia, Scotland
Conservation Least Concern Least Concern

Blue Nawab

A powerful and fast-flying butterfly with a pale bluish-white upper surface and intricate brown and orange undersides. It has distinctive short tails on the hindwings and a rapid, gliding flight.

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Did You Know?

Unlike many butterflies, the Blue Nawab rarely visits flowers and instead prefers fermenting fruit and animal dung for nutrients.

Northern Wood Ant

A medium-sized red and black ant that builds large thatch mounds in boreal forests. Colonies can contain hundreds of thousands of workers. The mound orientation and structure help regulate nest temperature in cold climates.

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Did You Know?

The ant mound acts as a solar collector, oriented to catch maximum sunlight, keeping the colony up to 20 degrees warmer than ambient temperature.