Biology:Colias aurorina

Short description: Species of butterfly

Colias aurorina
Colias aurorina spp. transcaspica female dorsal side
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Pieridae
Genus:	Colias
Species:	C. aurorina
Binomial name
Colias aurorina Herrich-Schäffer, 1850

Colias aurorina, the Greek clouded butterfly or dawn clouded yellow, is a butterfly in the family Pieridae. It is found in Central Greece, the Near East and the Caucasus area. It is rare in former Yugoslavia.

Colias aurorina spp. heldreichi

Description

Colias aurorina is one of the largest species of the genus; the wingspan is 35–70 mm. The upperside of the male is dusky orange -yellow, with moderately broad blackish brown marginal band which is traversed at the apex by yellow veins, the rather large middle spot of the forewing being blackish brown and that of the hindwing large and orange-red. The ground-colour of the female is somewhat brighter red, the dark marginal band bearing large yellow spots, which on the hindwing form a proximally dark-edged band, the dark marginal band being obsolescent.

Biology

The butterfly flies from May to July.

The larvae feed on Astracantha and Astragalus species.

Subspecies

• C. a. aurorina Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Talysh, N. Iran, Turkey
• C. a. libanotica Lederer, 1858 Considered by some authors as a subspecies of Colias aurorina or as a distinct species. Israel, Lebanon, Turkey
• C. l.(a.) heldreichi Staudinger, 1862 Greece
• C. l. (a.) sovarensis Blom, 1979 Iran
• C. a. daghestanica Verhulst, 1994 Daghestan, Armenia
• C. a. kermana Eckweiler, 1979 Iran (Kerman)
• C. a. rosei Gross & Ebert, 1975 N.Iran (Elburs)
• C. a. taurica Rebel, 1901 Turkey
• C. a. transcaspica Christoph, 1889 Turkmenistan (Kopet-Dagh, W. Transcaspia)

External links

• Colias aurorina Von J. Fuchs
• Butterflies of Europe
• Butterfly Conservation Armenia

Wikidata ☰ Q142806 entry