''Colias aurorina'', the Greek clouded butterfly or dawn clouded yellow, is a

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

in the family

Pieridae The Pieridae are a large family of butterflies with about 76 genera containing about 1,100 species, mostly from tropical Africa and tropical Asia with some varieties in the more northern regions of North America and Eurasia.DeVries P. J. in Le ...

. It is found in Central

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

, the

Near East The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...

and the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...

area. It is rare in former

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

Description

''Colias aurorina'' is one of the largest species of the genus; the

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...

is 35–70 mm. The upperside of the male is dusky orange -yellow, with moderately broad blackish brown marginal band which is traversed at the apex by yellow veins, the rather large middle spot of the forewing being blackish brown and that of the hindwing large and orange-red. The ground-colour of the female is somewhat brighter red, the dark marginal band bearing large yellow spots, which on the hindwing form a proximally dark-edged band, the dark marginal band being obsolescent.

Biology

The butterfly flies from May to July.Colias aurorina at Butterfly Conservation Armenia
/ref> The larvae feed on '' Astracantha'' and ''

Astragalus ''Astragalus'' is a large genus of over 3,000 species of herbs and small shrubs, belonging to the legume family Fabaceae and the subfamily Faboideae. It is the largest genus of plants in terms of described species. The genus is native to tempe ...

'' species.

Subspecies

*''C. a. aurorina'' Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Talysh, N. Iran, Turkey *''C. a. libanotica'' Lederer, 1858 Considered by some authors as a subspecies of ''Colias aurorina'' or as a distinct species. Israel, Lebanon, Turkey *''C. l.''(''a.'') ''heldreichi'' Staudinger, 1862 Greece *''C. l.'' (''a.'') ''sovarensis'' Blom, 1979 Iran *''C. a. daghestanica'' Verhulst, 1994 Daghestan, Armenia *''C. a. kermana'' Eckweiler, 1979 Iran (Kerman) *''C. a. rosei'' Gross & Ebert, 1975 N.Iran (Elburs) *''C. a. taurica'' Rebel, 1901 Turkey *''C. a. transcaspica'' Christoph, 1889 Turkmenistan (Kopet-Dagh, W. Transcaspia)

References

External links

''Colias aurorina'' Von J. Fuchs

Butterflies of Europe
aurorina Butterflies of Asia Butterflies of Europe Butterflies described in 1850 {{Pieridae-stub