''Colias hyale'', the pale clouded yellow, is a

butterfly Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

of the family

Pieridae The Pieridae are a large family (biology), family of butterflies with about 76 genera containing about 1,100 species, mostly from Afrotropical realm, tropical Africa and Indomalayan realm, tropical Asia with some varieties in the more northern ...

, (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 a biogeographic realm of the Earth, the largest of eight. Confined almost entirely to the Eastern Hemisphere, it stretches across Europe and Asia, north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. Th ...

. It is a rare migrant to the

British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, 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 Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...

and

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

. The adult

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

is .Heath J. & Maitland Emmet A. (1989) ''The Moths and Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland'', Vol. 7, Part 1, Harley Books Ltd., Colchester: Britishentomologyvolume5Plate242

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. (MHNT) Colias hyale - Novy Jicin Moravie Czech Republic - female dorsal.jpg, ''Colias hyale'' ♀ (MHNT) Colias hyale - Novy Jicin Moravie Czech Republic - female ventral.jpg, ''Colias hyale'' ♀ △

Biology

The larva feeds on several species and genera of

Fabaceae Fabaceae () or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomen ...

, including '' Vicia'', '' Coronilla'', '' Medicago'', '' Lotus'', '' Cytisus'' and ''

Trifolium Clovers, also called trefoils, are plants of the genus ''Trifolium'' (), consisting of about 300 species of flowering plants in the legume family Fabaceae originating in Europe. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution with the highest diversity ...

''.

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

Similar species

*'' Colias myrmidone'' *'' Colias alfacariensis'' *'' Colias crocea'' *'' Colias phicomone'' *'' Colias palaeno'' *'' Colias chrysotheme'' *'' Colias erate''

References

* * * * *

External links

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

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

{{Taxonbar, from=Q837768 hyale Butterflies of Asia Butterflies of Europe Butterflies described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus