Kingdom Animalia Class Insecta Family Pieridae Rank Species | Phylum Arthropoda Order Lepidoptera Genus Colias | |
Similar Colias montium, Colias berylla, Colias regia, Colias eogene, Colias tamerlana | ||
Colias hyperborea is a butterfly in the Pieridae family. It is found in the East Palearctic.
Contents
Description
Colias hyperborea is golden red or golden yellow above in the male, having rarely a bluish gloss; costal margin of forewing and inner margin of hindwing sulphur yellow, distal margin of forewing broadly blackish brown, dusted with sulphur yellow, the "sex-mark" at the costal margin of the hindwing large, elongate, reddish, the black middle spot of the forewing elongate, often large, the middle spot of the hindwing large, golden red, fringes of forewing rosy red, of hindwing often sulphur yellow. Underside of forewing light golden red, paler at the inner margin, greenish sulphur yellow at the costal and distal margins, very little dusted with black, hindwing greenish, the silvery middle spot thinly edged with red brown. The female is darkened above by greenish or blackish scaling, the distal marginal band bearing seven sulphur-yellow or yellow spots; hindwing darkened, the distal marginal band with large sulphur or golden-yellow spots, which often form a band; fringe and costa of forewing rosy red. The underside of the hindwing yellowish greenish, the veins being bluish, the middle spot silvery, small, and thinly edged with red brown.
Biology
The larva feeds on Astragalus alpinus and Oxytropis czukotica. It flies in June and July.
Subspecies
Taxonomy
It is accepted as a species by Josef Grieshuber and Gerardo Lamas.