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Photo#58652
Butterfly help? - Colias philodice

Butterfly help? - Colias philodice
Gillett, Wisconsin, USA
July 1, 2005
A little yellow butterfly....We have tons of them around the flower garden

Images of this individual: tag all
Butterfly help? - Colias philodice Butterfly help? - Colias philodice

How about
a Pink-edged Sulphur?

I'm envious as we don't see them in southern Ohio.

 
I think it's Clouded
Colias philodice. Note the 2 white dots in the hindwing.

 
Could be...
Most Clouded Suplhpurs I see around here have a row of brown spots around the hind wing's underside like and . The Colias eurytheme we have around here also have these dots --- or almost all of them.

Are the 2 (as opposed to 1?) white dots significant? I'd always thought of the details of these dot(s) to be too variable to be useful?

Any info would be appreciated!

 
More on this...
Here's what I gleaned from "BTB East" by Glassberg. He writes that the Pink-edged Sulphur "is distinguished from Clouded Sulphur by the single HW central spot (Clouded Sulphur has a doubled HW central spot) and by the more prominent pink wing edgings (although Clouded Sulphur can have a significant amount of pink)." As an additional cue, he mentions that "Clouded Sulphurs almost always have postmedian spots (sometimes faint) on the HW below." Seems like he intends to establish the HW spot as the key field mark, but I did notice he didn't use the phrases "always has" or "never has," which he often does in his books to point something out which he is extra-sure about. It does seem, though, as if he thinks the brown postmedian spots are more variable than the central hindwing spots. Of course, Glassberg is just one man.

Actually, what I should have said before is "according to Glassberg, it's probably a Clouded."

 
Thanks! Cliff...
Now I'm really confused! Not that I mind that 'cause its how I learn stuff....

Do the two thumbnails above have the single central hindwing spots? Or am I misunderstanding the character you're describing?

James Scott says of C. philodice "the unh has brownish submarginal dots and a silver spot in the center with two red rings around it and usually a satellite spot". While for C. interior he gives "Identified by the conspicuous pick fringes but uniformly yellow unh (with very few dark scales) and by the red ring around the unh central spot (which rarely has a satellite spot)..."

So if I'm understanding the characters correctly, the double satellite spot speaks for C. philodice while the lack of submarginal spots and light unh speak for C. interior.

I don't know pink-edged's well enough to know if the pink fringes are reasonable for that species. They are certainly at the edge of believable for C. p. in southern Ohio.

So I conclude I don't know what we're looking at! What fun.

 
My money is on Clouded Sulphur, too.
Butterflies of Wisconsin calls it very similar to Pink-edged Sulphur, but with faint submarginal spots, and more than one central spot - both of which this has. The submarginal spots are much more obvious on the second image Jim posted.

 
Thank you both...
Now I'm happy with Clouded too, especially as the second picture shows the band of brown spots!

In further reading I find that Thomas Allen (Butterlies of West Virginia) mentions the "satellite spot" character as well, but seems to insist on the submarginal spots for Clouded.

So an extra thing I've learned is I should try to get/see as many pictures and angles as possible. I wouldn't have thought that the spots so visible in the 2nd picture could disappear in the first!

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