help in identification

Matthew Smith MatSmith1 at compuserve.com
Sun Sep 17 08:02:32 EDT 2000


Message text written by INTERNET:Richard at rsamways.freeserve.co.uk
>I live in UK
I recently saw a butterfly in my garden and would like to know what it
was.I
have looked in some books but cannot find it and wondered if anyone can
help.

It was on a flower and its wings were up so i could see the underside.
It was a pale primrose yellow with a circular-ish ( lime ?) green spot near
its wing tip.

When it flew off, it looked as though the top side of its wings had a lot
more green on them.
As I was in the house when i saw it i couldnt get a closer look.
any help would be nice<

At the moment there are two possible yellow/green species on the wing, the
Clouded Yellow (Colias croceus) and the Brimstone (Gonopteryx rhamni). 
Both have a 'spot' on the underside of the wing.  Clouded Yellows are
migratory, we seem to be having a good year for them so far.  They have a
black border to the upperside of the fore and hind wings which is usually
pretty noticeable, even when the butterfly is in flight.  Brimstone males
are a bright yellow, females are a lot paler and often have a green tinge
to them, the illustrations in books like Chinery dont' quite do the colours
justice..  I'd suggest your butterfly is a female brimstone.  She will be
feeding up before hibernation, next spring she will lay eggs on Buckthorn.

Regards

Matt


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