Pollinator
Clouded sulphur
Colias philodice
A clear lemon-yellow butterfly, among the most abundant of open country.
- Family
- Pieridae (whites and sulphurs)
- Wingspan
- 1.4 to 2.4 in (3.5 to 6 cm)
- Flight season
- Spring to fall (many broods)
- Range
- Across North America
- Caterpillar food
- Clovers and other legumes
- Conservation
- Secure and widespread
The clouded sulphur is a clear lemon-yellow butterfly, bordered black above, one of the most abundant butterflies of open country across the continent.
It flies in many broods and often mixes with the orange sulphur at mud puddles and clover fields; the two even hybridize.
Caterpillars feed on clovers and other legumes of fields and meadows.
Plants for the clouded sulphur
47 native plants with documented flower-visit records. Narrow with the filters below.
47 plants
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1 of 2No plants match those filters.
Sources
- Butterflies and Moths of North America ↗
- iNaturalist ↗
- Plant associations from GloBI flower-visit records and NPIN larval-host data. Butterfly photographs via iNaturalist (CC BY).