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American Snout

Libytheana carinenta[3]

The American snout is a small butterfly with a long, beak-like 'snout' formed by its mouthparts, orange patches edged in dark brown with white spots, and squared-off wingtips; its caterpillars feed only on hackberries and do little harm.[1][2]

Group
Insect
Order
Lepidoptera
Family
Nymphalidae
US records
37 states
Sources
3 cited
Updated
2026-10-16
American snout butterfly showing its long beak-like snout and orange-and-brown wings
American snout butterfly showing its long beak-like snout and orange-and-brown wings. (c) Louise Woodrich, some rights reserved (CC BY) — via iNaturalist, CC BY 4.0
On this page
  1. Identification
  2. Look-alikes
  3. Where it lives
  4. Biology
  5. Damage and signs
  6. Health risk
  7. Control
  8. Related profiles
  9. Common questions
  10. Sources

How to identify it

  • Wingspan is about 1 to 2 inches; the upper side is orange with wide dark borders and white spots near the squared wingtips.[1][2]
  • At rest on a twig with wings closed, it shows mottled brown to violet-gray undersides and looks like a dead leaf, with the snout resembling a leaf stem.[1][2]
  • Caterpillars are green with yellow stripes and tiny yellow specks and a humped front end, without the horns of emperor caterpillars.[1][2]

Look-alikes

Look-alikeHow to tell them apart
Hackberry emperor caterpillarsShare hackberry as a host, but emperor caterpillars have horns on the head; snout caterpillars do not.[1]

Where it lives

From central and southern California east to Colorado and Nebraska and through most of the eastern United States, south to Argentina; it migrates into Missouri in May.[1][2]

US map: public records from 37 states since 1990 (GBIF).

Biology and life cycle

There are two generations a year over most of the range and three or more in Florida; adults overwinter in the south and repopulate the north each spring.[1][2]

Some years bring immense migrations, numbering in the millions in the West; MDC links booms to early drought that cuts predators followed by heavy summer rain.[1][2]

Eggs are laid in leaf axils of young hackberry shoots, and adults sip nectar, especially from white and yellow flowers, and drink from mud.[1][2]

Damage and signs

  • Caterpillars eat young leaves of hackberry, dwarf hackberry and sugarberry; MDC describes the feeding as relatively benign.[1][2]

Health risk

None to people or pets.[1][2]

Control

Prevention

No control is needed.[2]

Common questions

What butterfly has a long snout?
The American snout, the only snout butterfly in North America.[2]
What do snout caterpillars eat?
Hackberry and sugarberry leaves.[1][2]
Why are there swarms of them some years?
Populations boom in some years and migrate in huge numbers.[1][2]

Sources

  1. University of Florida IFAS Extension (EDIS, Featured Creatures), “American Snout, Libytheana carinenta (Cramer) (EENY-452).” ask.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/IN819 (accessed 2026-10-16)
  2. Missouri Department of Conservation, “American Snout (Field Guide).” mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/american-snout (accessed 2026-10-16)
  3. iNaturalist, “Libytheana carinenta taxon page (order and family).” www.inaturalist.org/taxa/58561 (accessed 2026-10-06)

Updated 2026-10-16. Built from sourced records. Spot an error? Tell us.