''Colias marcopolo'', the Marco Polo's colias, 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 ...

found in the

Pamir Mountains The Pamir Mountains are a mountain range between Central Asia and Pakistan. It is located at a junction with other notable mountains, namely the Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun, Hindu Kush and the Himalaya mountain ranges. They are among the world ...

the Hindu Kush and

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

Description

''Colias marcopolo'' is one of the smaller species. Upperside of male pale sulphur yellow, with a not very broad greyish black distal marginal band and an inconspicuous large yellow spot on the hindwing, but without a black middle spot on the forewing. Underside of forewing dirty yellow, with greyish-green distal margin; hindwing darker greyish green, with whitish middle spot. The female is yolk colour above and below, the distal marginal band being broader and having the inner edge diffuse, the forewing bearing yellow submarginal spots. The form with brighter yellow upperside, narrower dark distal margins and a black middle spot on the forewing above and below, is named ab.? ''nicolopolo''.

Biology

The larva feeds on species of '' Astragalus''.

Biotope

A montane species found between 3000 and 5000 metres a.s.l.

Subspecies

*''C. m. marcopolo'' Pamirs, Hindukush *''C. m. afganipolo'' Schulte, 1977 Afghanistan *''C. m. kushana'' Wyatt & Omoto, 1966 Afghanistan

Etymology

The species is named for

Marco Polo Marco Polo (, , ; 8 January 1324) was a Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known as ''Book of the Marv ...

References

External links

''Colias marcopolo'' images
at Consortium for the Barcode of Life (Photographs of syntype in

Zoologische Staatssammlung München The Bavarian State Collection of Zoology (german: Zoologische Staatssammlung München) or ZSM is a major German research institution for zoological systematics in Munich. It has over 20 million zoological specimens. It is one of the largest natur ...

marcopolo Thor (previously known as Marcopolo) is a family of satellites designed, launched and tested by Hughes Space and Communications (now part of Boeing Satellite Systems) for British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB), and were used for Britain's Direct ...

Butterflies described in 1888 Butterflies of Asia Taxa named by Grigory Grum-Grshimailo {{pieridae-stub