Pink-edged sulphur
Colias interior
The pink-edged sulphur is a bright yellow butterfly with black borders on its wings. All around the edges of its wings runs a thin pink line. It is the official state butterfly of Maine in the United States.
Lives in
Southern Canada and the northern United States, in sunny openings in shrubby forests
Wingspan
3.9 to 6.6 cm (1.5 to 2.6 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting people, so you can watch it up close.
What does it eat?
The butterflies sip nectar from flowers such as orange hawkweed. The caterpillars eat blueberry leaves.
How big is it?
How wide are its wings?
🧱wings as wide as 2 toy building bricks⚽could fly across a whole football pitch in 24 seconds
How big is Pink-edged sulphur compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Pink-edged sulphur about 16 km/h (9.9 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
A car driving in town about 50 km/h (31 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
The female lays her eggs on blueberry plants, so her caterpillars have food right away.
2
It flies only once a year, between June and August.
3
Each back wing has one spot in the middle.
4
Females have narrower black borders than males.
you asked
Most asked questions about Pink-edged sulphur
?What does the pink-edged sulphur eat?
The butterflies drink nectar, and the caterpillars eat the leaves of blueberries.
?How big is the pink-edged sulphur?
Its wingspan is about 39 to 66 millimetres.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Colias interior
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Pieridae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Pieridae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Colias interior (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 Sue Elwell. CC0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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