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Photo#267206
Orange-barred Sulphur - Phoebis philea - female

Orange-barred Sulphur - Phoebis philea - Female
Dog Canyon, Otero County, New Mexico, USA
October 25, 2006

Hey Bob, if you're still looking in,
this looks like a female Cloudless Sulphur (Phoebis sennae) to me. Did you get a good look at the upper side? The pattern on the under side does not look right for P. philea.

 
P. philea
David, Don't remember a lot of details after 7 yrs, but do remember a flash of orange from above in flight caught my attention. I saw the same in repeated flights. Sent pic to Steve Cary, and he agreed at the time. I looked, and as expected, had no view of the upper-side in a couple other pics.

 
I'm not sure myself,
and orange on the upperside usually means P. philea; so, I'll leave it here. These comments will help point out any possible doubts to anyone looking in. I'll point out the thing that got my attention and raised my doubts. If you look at the silvered discal spots in the middle of the hind wing, there is a dark diagonal streak going up from them. In P. philea this is normally well offset from the discal spots, but in P. sennae it usually points right at the discal spots and often connects (as in this specimen). Also, the dark markings on P. philea are usually more disjointed and irregularly placed than on this one. However, both species are very similar, and both are highly varied.

 
somehow managed to duplicate comments
so deleted this copy

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