''Eurema albula'', the ghost 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 ...

in 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 ...

. It is found from southern

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

(where it is a rare stray) south through the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

and mainland tropical Central and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. 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 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 . Adults are on wing year round in the tropics. They feed on flower

nectar Nectar is a viscous, sugar-rich liquid produced by Plant, plants in glands called nectaries, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollination, pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to an ...

. The larvae feed on '' Cassia'' species (including '' Cassia fruticosa'').

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, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...

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

References

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