Clouded Yellow
Colias crocea
Status :
Summer Visitor
Wingspan : 4.5-5.2 cm
Ireland has a wide range of butterflies many are residents and some, like this Clouded Yellow, are visitors.
Clouded Yellow's typically live in the warmer areas of Europe but a few are seen every year along the southern shores of Ireland. They are a very fast moving butterfly and tend to flit from flower to flower rapidly, making good photographs of them fairly hard to get.
When feeding they invariably have their wings shut. They lay single eggs on the underside of food plants, the caterpillars are dark green with yellow lines, black dots and reddish streaks. The Caterpillar can hibernate but only in area free from frost, therefore the northenmost ranges of their territorys are repopulated each year by new Clouded Yellows flying up from warmer southerly climates.
This Clouded Yelow was photographed at Tacumshin Lake, Wexford, September 2007