''Colias hyale'', the pale 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 ...

of 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 ...

, (also known as the yellows and whites) which is found in most of Europe and large parts of the

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 ...

. It is a rare migrant to the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...

and

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...

. The adult

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 .Heath J. & Maitland Emmet A. (1989) ''The Moths and Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland'', Vol. 7, Part 1, Harley Books Ltd., Colchester: Colias hyale

Description

The upperside of the male is more or less light lemon yellow, with the black marginal and submarginal bands more or less complete on both wings; the black middle spot of the forewing large, in centre of hindwing an orange-yellow double spot; base of wings more or less dusted with black. The underside is bright yellow, being somewhat lighter on the forewing, with small marginal and larger submarginal red-brown spots; the middle spot of the forewing black with pale centre, the hindwing bearing a double spot which is mother-of-pearl colour, encircled by a double ring of red brown; fringes above and beneath, as well as head and antenna red brown. In the female the ground colour of the upperside and the proximal area of the underside of the forewing is white, being slightly yellowish. The egg is bottle shaped, whitish, with yellowish-brown stripes. The larva is bluish green or grass green, velvety, there being on the back two rows of blackish dots which are traversed by two thin yellow longitudinal lines, above the legs a yellow or reddish longitudinal side line, head dark green; the autumnal larvae without black dorsal spots. Pupa green, with yellow lateral lines.

Biology

The larva feeds on several species and genera of

Fabaceae The Fabaceae or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomenc ...

, including ''

Vicia ''Vicia'' is a genus of over 240 species of flowering plants that are part of the legume family (Fabaceae), and which are commonly known as vetches. Member species are native to Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Africa. Some other ...

'', ''

Coronilla The genus ''Coronilla'' contains 8 species of flowering plants native to Europe and North Africa. It cointained about 20 species before being split into ''Securigera''. Species include: * '' Coronilla coronata'' * ''Coronilla juncea'' * ''Coro ...

'', ''

Medicago ''Medicago'' is a genus of flowering plants, commonly known as medick or burclover, in the legume family (Fabaceae). It contains at least 87 species and is distributed mainly around the Mediterranean basin. The best-known member of the genus is ...

'', '' Lotus'', ''

Cytisus ''Cytisus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae, native to open sites (typically scrub and heathland) in Europe, western Asia and North Africa. It belongs to the subfamily Faboideae, and is one of several genera in the tribe Ge ...

'' and ''

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 ...

''.

Habitat

The species lives in flower meadows up to 2,000 metres above sea level.

Distribution

It is common throughout the Palaearctic Region. Recorded from Ireland only once, in 1868; in England it is found only in the south.Howarth, T.G. 1973. p.45. ''South's British Butterflies.'' Frederick Warne & Co Ltd.

Subspecies

*''Colias hyale hyale'' Europe, Ukraine, S. Russia *''Colias hyale alta'' Staudinger, 1886 a large form with a broad black marginal band provisionally accepted as a full species that flies only at high altitudes in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan "but it may only be a subspecies of ''C. hyale''". by Grieshuber & Lamas, 2007 *''Colias hyale altaica'' Verity, 1911 Altaï *''Colias hyale irkutskana'' Stauder, 1924 *''Colias hyale palidis'' Fruhstorfer, 1910 East Siberia *''Colias hyale novasinensis'' Reissinger, 1989 Gansu

References

* * * * *

External links

Global Butterfly Information System
Images of ''C. h. novasinensis'' Reissinger, 1989

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

{{Taxonbar, from=Q837768

hyale ''Menesta'' is a moth genus of the family Depressariidae Depressariidae is a family of moths. It has formerly been treated as a subfamily of Gelechiidae, but is now recognised as a separate family, comprising about 2,300 species worldwide.Heikk ...

Butterflies of Asia Butterflies of Europe Butterflies of Indochina Butterflies described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus