''Colias heos'' 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 Levi ...

. It is found in the East

Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

(Altai to southern Siberia, Mongolia to Ussuri, southeastern China).

Description

''C. aurora'' (''heos'') is a beautiful dark orange-red species. The veins are thinly black, being yellow however in the black marginal band. The hindwing is somewhat dusky, being again lighter before the black distal margin; the costa of the forewing is yellow, the moderately large middle spot of the forewing pale centred, the large orange-red middle spot of the hindwing contrasting with the ground. The underside of a beautiful yellow, with sparse markings, the black middle spot of the forewing pale centred, and that of the hindwing the colour of mother of pearl, edged with brownish, being sometimes double. The female has the ground colour orange red, or yellow, or white; the white females are named ab. ''chloe'' Eversmann; in the marginal band there are yellow spots, which are often united on the hindwing to form a band. ''decolorata'' Staudinger, from Dauria, is a lighter coloured local form.

Biology

The larva feeds on '' Vicia'', '' Astragalus'', ''

Trifolium Clover or trefoil are common names for plants of the genus ''Trifolium'' (from Latin ''tres'' 'three' + ''folium'' 'leaf'), consisting of about 300 species of flowering plants in the legume or pea family Fabaceae originating in Europe. The genus h ...

lucanicum''

Subspecies

*''C. h. heos'' *''C. h. alpina'' Verity, 1911 Altai, Sayan *''C. h. semenovi'' Shtandel, 1960 *''C. h. thia'' Bang-Haas, 1934 "Kansu mer. occ., Meitschouan, Minschan. Anfang Juli- 2000 m" *''C. h. vespera'' O. Bang-Haas, 1929 "Kansu, Gebirge bei Lantschou"

Taxonomy

Accepted as a species by Josef Grieshuber & Gerardo Lamas

References

External links

Global Butterfly Information System
Images of ''C. h. heos''
Global Butterfly Information System
Images of ''C. h. thia'' Bang-Haas, 1934 "Kansu mer. occ., Meitschouan, Minschan. Anfang Juli- 2000 m"
Global Butterfly Information System
Images of ''C. h. vespera'' Bang-Haas, 1927 Butterflies described in 1792 heos {{Pieridae-stub