Colias alfacariensis

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Berger's clouded yellow
Berger's Clouded Yellow (28516174703).jpg
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Pieridae
Genus: Colias
Species:
C. alfacariensis
Binomial name
Colias alfacariensis
Ribbe, 1905
Synonyms

Colias sareptensis Staudinger, 1871
Colias australisVerity, 1911

Contents

Colias alfacariensis, Berger's clouded yellow, is a butterfly of the family Pieridae. It was separated from the pale clouded yellow, C. hyale, in 1905. Berger's clouded yellow is a Palearctic species (South and Central Europe, South Russia, Russian Far East, Siberia Central Asia and temperate China also Asia Minor, Caucasus and Transcaucasia.

Specimen Colias alfacariensis.jpg
Specimen

Description

The wings of the male have a yellow ground colour, the females have a greenish-white ground colour, only the underside of the hind wings is yellowish. The upper wing side of both sexes has a dusted dark brown to black marginal band, which is only narrow on the hind wings. In the cell of the forewings there is a black spot on the upper and lower sides. The males have on the upperside of the hind wings in the cell an orange spot with a red border, on the underside this spot is bright and clearly outlined in red. This spot may be divided into two by the red border, so that it resembles an eight similar to Colias hyale and other yellow members of the genus Colias. In the females, the orange spot on the top of the hind wings is not bordered. The caterpillars , on the other hand, clearly differ from the caterpillars of Colias hyale after the second moult. Both caterpillars are green, however, the caterpillar of Colias alfacariensis has four eye-catching yellow lines with black dots while the caterpillar of the Colias hyale has only two thin side lines.

Similar species

Biology

The larval food plants are horseshoe vetch ( Hippocrepis comosa ) and crown vetch ( Coronilla varia ) on which the female lays the eggs. The butterfly is found on calcareous marshy and dry grasslands and in dry shrubbery or lightly forested areas. They avoid cool and rainy areas. They fly in two generations in May, June and August, September or in three generations from May to October feeding at flowers.

Migration

This species is a rare vagrant to south England, the North German plain and Denmark.

Subspecies

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References

  1. Reissinger, Eduard (1989). "Die geographisch-subspecifische Gliederung von Colias alfacariensis Ribbe unter Berücksichtigun der Migrationsverhältnisse" (PDF). Neue Ent. Nachricten. 26: 1–351.