''Colias hyperborea'' 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 ...

Description

''Colias hyperborea'' is golden red or golden yellow above in the male, having rarely a bluish gloss; costal margin of forewing and inner margin of hindwing sulphur yellow, distal margin of forewing broadly blackish brown, dusted with sulphur yellow, the "sex-mark" at the costal margin of the hindwing large, elongate, reddish, the black middle spot of the forewing elongate, often large, the middle spot of the hindwing large, golden red, fringes of forewing rosy red, of hindwing often sulphur yellow. Underside of forewing light golden red, paler at the inner margin, greenish sulphur yellow at the costal and distal margins, very little dusted with black, hindwing greenish, the silvery middle spot thinly edged with red brown. The female is darkened above by greenish or blackish scaling, the distal marginal band bearing seven sulphur-yellow or yellow spots; hindwing darkened, the distal marginal band with large sulphur or golden-yellow spots, which often form a band; fringe and costa of forewing rosy red. The underside of the hindwing yellowish greenish, the veins being bluish, the middle spot silvery, small, and thinly edged with red brown.

Biology

The larva feeds on ''

Astragalus alpinus ''Astragalus alpinus'' is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common name alpine milkvetch. It has a circumpolar distribution, occurring throughout the upper latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. Distribution It is ...

'' and '' Oxytropis czukotica''. It flies in June and July.

Subspecies

*''C. h. hyperborea'' northeastern Siberia, Chukot Peninsula *''C. h. kurnakovi'' Kurentzov, 1970 Magadan *''C. h. tunkuna'' Austaut, 1912 Sayan *''C. h. puella'' Churkin & Grieshuber, 2001 eastern Chukotka *''C. h. paradoxa'' Churkin & Grieshuber, 2001 Putorana plateau

Taxonomy

It is accepted as a species by Josef Grieshuber and Gerardo Lamas.

References

External links

RusinsectsState Darwin Museum images

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wiktionary:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to a ...

images of ''Colias hyperborea paradoxa'' Churkin et Greishuber, 2001 and ''Colias hyperborea puella'' Churkin and Greishuber, 2001; Churkin, Greishuber, Bogdanov, and Zamolodchikov, 2001 at the Darwin Museum Butterflies described in 1899 hyperborea Taxa named by Grigory Grum-Grshimailo {{Pieridae-stub