Great Purple Emperor Coloring Pages

Japan's National Butterfly! The Beautiful Purple Lady 🦋

Great Purple Emperor is the biggest butterfly among the brush-footed butterfly family in Japan. The male has bright purple topsides on its wings that shine beautifully. Because it is so lovely, it was chosen as the national butterfly of Japan.

The English name for Great Purple Emperor is Sasakia charonda. People think it was named after Chujiro Sasaki, who was a famous Japanese insect scientist. Also, its Japanese name "O-murasaki" comes from a mix of its big wings and its beautiful, shiny metallic purple color.

Where Does It Live?

Great Purple Emperor lives mostly in Japan (Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu), but you can also find it across a wide area of East Asia, like the Korean Peninsula, China, and Taiwan.

• Where it lives in Japan: You could see it all over Japan in the past. Now, it lives in fewer places because there are fewer mixed forests. It really likes satoyama mountain forests with trees like konara oak and sawtooth oak.
  • Instead of just one special place, it lives in satoyama forests from the Kanto region to the west. You can still see quite a lot of them in places where people work hard to protect the environment.

What Do Its Body Patterns Look Like?

Boy and girl Great Purple Emperor butterflies have very different wing colors.

• Males: The topsides of their wings have a beautiful metallic purple shine when the light hits them. They have black patterns along the edges.
• Females: Their wings are a bit bigger than the males', and their wing color is brownish. They do not have the purple shine like males, but their big size is very cool!
• Underneath the wings: Both males and females have brown or gray undersides that look like tree bark or leaves. When they close their wings, it is hard for enemies to find them.

What Does It Eat?

Great Purple Emperor eats different things as it grows up.

• Caterpillars: They eat only the leaves of the Chinese hackberry tree. Great Purple Emperor cannot live without this special tree!
• Adult butterflies: They drink tree sap for food. They really love the sap from trees like the sawtooth oak. Instead of flower nectar, they drink tree sap!

How Long Does It Live?

Great Purple Emperor grows up only once a year.

• They become adult butterflies in the summer and start to fly. Then they lay eggs in the autumn.
• They spend the winter as caterpillars. In the spring, they start eating hackberry leaves and grow big again.
• The time they spend flying as adult butterflies is very short—just a few weeks!

How to Choose Colors: Show Off the Boy's Purple Shine!

For the Great Purple Emperor coloring page, it is fun to use different colors for the boys and girls.

• Boy's Purple: Try layering dark blue and purple. To make it look shiny, you can color the middle with bright light blue, or draw the black lines clearly. It will really sparkle!
• Girl's Brown: Use bright brown and yellowish-brown as your main colors. Then, color the patterns and lines with dark brown. This shows off how big and strong the girls are!
• Underside of the Wings: Color them gray or light brown like the trunk of a tree to make them look real.

Coloring Tips: Pay Attention to the Wing Lines and Shapes!

• Showing Patterns: The wings of a Great Purple Emperor have many fine lines. If you color along these lines, the wings will look much more real.
• Making It Look 3D: Make the base of the wing (close to the body) a dark color, and make it lighter as you move to the tips. This makes the wings look 3D!

Tips to Enjoy Your Coloring Page!

• Express Yourself Freely!
• You do not have to stick to real colors. Color it any way you like! What if a Great Purple Emperor looked like this? A rainbow boy or a pink girl would be fun, too!
• Try Adding a Background!
• Where is your Great Purple Emperor sitting? Add some tree sap on an oak tree or draw hackberry leaves to make your picture come alive!