Phoebis sennae

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Cloudless Sulphur
Female
Male
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Pieridae
Genus: Phoebis
Species: P. sennae
Binomial name
Phoebis sennae
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Subspecies

Three, see text

Synonyms

Papilio sennae

The Cloudless Sulphur or Cloudless Giant Sulphur (Phoebis sennae) is a midsized butterfly in the family Pieridae found in the New World. There are several similar species such as the Yellow Angled-sulphur (Anteos maerula), which has angled wings, or other sulphurs, which are much smaller.

Distribution

Their range is wide, from South America to southern Canada, in particular southwestern Ontario.[1] They are most common from Argentina to southern Texas and Florida, but are often visitors outside this range becoming more rare further north.

Habitat

The common habitats of this butterfly are open spaces, gardens, glades, seashores, and watercourses.

Habits

The adult butterfly feeds on nectar from many different flowers with long tubes including cordia, bougainvillea, cardinal flower, hibiscus, lantana, and wild morning glory.

Life cycle

The breeding season is dependent on the climate of the area, from midsummer to fall in the cooler areas, to year-round where the climate is warmer.

Egg

The Cloudless Sulphur starts off as a pitcher-shaped white egg. Eventually it will turn to a pale orange. The egg stage lasts six days.

Caterpillar

Once the egg hatches, a caterpillar emerges that is yellow to greenish, striped on sides, with black dots in rows across the back. The caterpillar will build a tent in a host plant where it hides in the day. The host plant may be partridge pea (Chamaecrista cinerea), sennas (Senna),[2] clovers (Trifolium), or other legumes (Fabaceae). The caterpillar will usually grow to a length between 41–45 mm (1.6–1.8 in).

Chrysalis

The caterpillar will form a chrysalis that is pointed at both ends and humped in the middle. The chrysalis will be either yellow or green with pink or green stripes. From the chrysalis comes a medium sized butterfly (55–70 mm (2.2–2.8 in)) with fairly elongated but not angled wings.

Adult

The male butterfly is clear yellow above and yellow or mottled with reddish brown below and the female is lemon-yellow to golden or white on both surfaces, with varying amounts of black spotting along the margin and a black open square or star on the bottom forewing. Wingspan: 63–78 mm (2.5–3.1 in).

  • Cloudless Sulphur, Monsanto Insectarium, St. Louis Zoo

  • Caterpillar

  • Yellow version of the cloudless sulphur caterpillar feeding on senna tree, Vista, CA

  • Cloudless sulphur chrysalis on senna tree, Vista, CA

Subspecies

Listed alphabetically.[3]

  • P. s. amphitrite (Feisthamel, 1839)
  • P. s. eubule[4]
  • P. s. marcellina (Cramer, [1779])
  • P. s. sennae

References

  1. ↑ Cloudless Sulphur, Butterflies of Canada
  2. ↑ Clark, Dale. "Phoebis sennae". Dallas County Lepidopterists' Society. Retrieved 2008-07-21. 
  3. ↑ Phoebis, funet.fi
  4. ↑ Cloudless Sulphur, Butterflies of Canada

External links

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