Orange Sulphur

Orange Sulphur

Taxobox
name = Orange Sulphur


image_width = 240px
image_caption = Upperside pattern of collection specimen
status = NE
status_system = IUCN3.1
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Insecta
ordo = Lepidoptera
familia = Pieridae
genus = "Colias"
species = "Colias eurytheme"
binomial = "Colias eurytheme"
binomial_authority = Boisduval, 1852

The Orange Sulphur ("Colias eurytheme"), also know as the Alfalfa Butterfly and in its larval stage as Alfalfa Caterpillar, is a butterfly of the family Pieridae, where it belongs to the "yellows and sulphurs" subfamily Coliadinae. It is found throughout North America from southern Canada to Mexico, but is absent from the central and southeastern USA.

"C. eurytheme" belongs to a lowland group of clouded yellows (or as they are known in North America, "sulphurs"), "Colias". Other members of this lineage including the Common Sulphur or Clouded Sulphur ("C. philodice") and "Colias eriphyle" and "Colias vitabunda" which are often included in "C. philodice" as subspecies. Hybridization runs rampant between these, making phylogenetic analyses relying exclusively on one type of data (especially mtDNA sequences) unreliable. Therefore little more can be said about its relationships, except that it is perhaps closer to "C. (p.) eriphyle" than generally assumed, strengthening the view that the latter should be considered a good species. [Wheat & Watt (2008)]

The Orange Sulphur's caterpillars feed off various species in the pea family (Fabaceae) and are usually only found feeding at night. Occasionally this species multiplies to high numbers, and can become a serious pest to Alfalfa ("Medicago sativa") crops.

Footnotes

References

* (2008): A mitochondrial-DNA-based phylogeny for some evolutionary-genetic model species of "Colias" butterflies (Lepidoptera, Pieridae). "Mol. Phylogenet. Evol." 47(3): 893-902. doi|10.1016/j.ympev.2008.03.013 (HTML abstract, supplement available to subscribers)

External links

* [http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/distr/lepid/bflyusa/sc/728.htm Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center]
* [http://www.dallasbutterflies.com/Butterflies/html/eurytheme.html The Dallas County Lepidopterists' Society]


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