''Eurema albula'', the ghost yellow, is a

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises ...

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 from southern

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

(where it is a rare stray) south through the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Great ...

and mainland tropical

Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known a ...

and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the souther ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. The habitat consists of tropical forests and second growth.Butterflies and Moths of North America
/ref> The

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 ...

is . Adults are pure white above with a black tip to forewing. Adults are on wing year round in the tropics. They feed on flower nectar. The larvae feed on '' Cassia'' species (including ''

Cassia fruticosa Cassia typically refers to cassia bark, the spice made from the bark of East Asian evergreen trees. Cassia may also refer to: Plants ;Cinnamon trees * '' Cinnamomum cassia'' (, ''ròuguì''), the cassia or Chinese cinnamon, found in southern Ch ...

'').

Subspecies

*''E. a. albula'' (Surinam, Brazil: Amazonas, Pará) *''E. a. sinoe'' (Godart, 1819) (Brazil) *''E. a. marginella'' (C. & R. Felder, 1861) (Venezuela) *''E. a. celata'' (R. Felder, 1869) (Mexico) *''E. a. espinosae'' (Fernández, 1928) (Peru) *''E. a. totora'' Lamas, 1981 (Peru) File:Ghost_yellow_(Eurema_albula)_male.JPG, Male,

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

File:Eurema albula taken Prisoner by a Plant.jpg, Caught in ''

Desmodium axillare ''Desmodium'' is a genus of plants in the legume family Fabaceae, sometimes called tick-trefoil, tick clover, hitch hikers or beggar lice. There are dozens of species and the delimitation of the genus has shifted much over time. These are mostly ...

'' pods

References

Albula Albula may refer to: Places *Albula, an old (possibly legendary) name of the Tiber river Switzerland *Albula Range, a mountain range *Albula (river), a tributary of the Hinterrhein *Albula District, a district in canton Graubünden until 2017 ** ...

Butterflies of Central America Pieridae of South America Butterflies of North America Butterflies of Trinidad and Tobago Lepidoptera of Brazil Lepidoptera of Venezuela Fauna of the Amazon Butterflies described in 1776 Taxa named by Pieter Cramer {{Pieridae-stub