Colias alfacariensis

• Subfamily: Coliadinae - Coliadini
• Wingspan: 40-45 mm
• Flight period: Apr - Oct
• Spread: Common
• Host plants: Fabaceae - Scrophulariaceae

Information

The Colias alfacariensis also called Berger's Clouded Yellow is a butterfly of the Pieridae family with a wingspan of 40-45 mm. It is distributed in most of Europe with the exception of Ireland, Iceland, Finland and Norway. In Italy it is absent only from the Islands. *

The background color of the upper page of the anterior wing is usually intense lemon yellow in the male, yellowish white in the female, although variations in intensity are visible in both sexes. the discal spot of the rear wing is bright orange. The front wing has a dark band along the edge, black in color with some spots in the background color that cross it. In the rear wing the dark border is barely hinted at or completely absent.

The lower pages of the wings, take up the background color of the upper pages, slightly faded on the front wing. They have a pink border and a series of dark spots, not well defined in the postdiscal region, parallel to the edge.
Also the discal spot of the rear wing is shown on the lower page, almost always accompanied by a much smaller spot, both are white and edged in pink, with a second, slightly larger, pink edging.
The anterior wing has a clearly visible black spot between the discoidal cell and the median area.**

The Colias alfacariensis is bi or trivoltina has flickers ranging from April to October depending on the latitude, occasionally even in November, it winters as a young larva. Very fast and powerful flying, it has good aptitudes to the same and can travel long distances It can be easily confused with the Colias crocea , especially in the Helice or Helicina forms, and can be distinguished from the latter by the absence of the black band on the edge of the rear wing. When it rests it always keeps its wings closed like all the representatives of the Colias.
Present from the basal to the alpine level, it can be observed from sunny meadows to cultivated areas. Quite widespread, it is less common than Colias crocea.

The caterpillar is green in color, not intense with four longitudinal yellow lines, two on the back and two on the sides. In correspondence of each segment are clearly visible black spots that they have the appearance of lines perpendicular to the yellow lines previously described.

The larvae feed on various Fabaceae and Scrophulariaceae, such as Medicago, Lotus, Trifolium, Coronilla, Cymbalaria muralis.


* Lepidoptera mundi https://lepidoptera.eu/ - Fauna Europea https://fauna-eu.org/
** Bestimmungshilfe für die in Europa nachgewiesenen Schmetterlingsarten - http://lepiforum.de/