Orange sulphur
The orange sulphur is a bright yellow and orange butterfly that flutters over fields and meadows in North America. The males have a secret: their wings shine with ultraviolet light that we cannot see, but other butterflies can. It loves fields of alfalfa.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Males find females by their colour. They have even tried to court paper cut-outs of the right colour.
Some females are white instead of yellow-orange.
Its caterpillar is called the alfalfa caterpillar, because it loves to eat alfalfa.
It used to live mostly in the west, but spread east when people planted alfalfa fields.
Males also give off a special scent from their back wings to win a female.
Most asked questions about Orange sulphur
?What does the orange sulphur eat?
The butterfly drinks nectar, and its caterpillar eats pea family plants like alfalfa.
?Is the orange sulphur a pest?
Sometimes. When there are huge numbers of caterpillars, they can damage alfalfa crops.
?Where does the orange sulphur live?
All over North America, from southern Canada to Mexico.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Colias eurytheme
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Pieridae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Pieridae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Alfalfa butterfly, Alfalfa caterpillar
Where the facts come from
- Colias eurytheme (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by IvanTortuga. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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