Howard County Bird Club
Clouded Sulphur
Place name abbreviations: MPEA – Middle Patuxent Environment Area; PRSP – Patuxent River State Park; PVSP – Patapsco River Valley State Park.
Click on the common name to obtain additional information from the Butterflies and Moths of North America web page and the following common name for additional information from USGS web page. BugGuide is another web resource.
Legend:
| Common name [Link is to BAMONA] (wingspan range in inches) Common name [link is to USGS] |
Occurrence level & flight period. | |
| Habitat. | Typically visits (for nectaring). | Larval host plants. |
| Clouded Sulphur (1.5–2.75″) Clouded Sulphur |
Common: E-Apr thru E-Nov | Open woods, clover fields | Clover blossoms | Clovers | |
All medium-sized sulphurs have a pink-edge on forewing and hindwing. It is more noticeable on some specimens than others.
Male
July 2, 2010
Larriland Farm
Richard Orr
White form female
July 5, 2014
Belmont
Sue Probst
May 25, 2012
Patuxent Branch Trail
Annette Allor
Most of the White and Sulphur species “puddle” to absorb minerals.
Which species is this white female?There is no foolproof way to tell all of the sulphur white females apart. From pairings I’ve seen in the field, the Orange white females usually have more dark scaling in the white, broader wing borders (with of course white patches in the border), AND the yellow-orange spot in the center of the dorsal HW is heavy orange rather than yellow (yes, I know, this spot is never exposed while perching – I’ve made these conclusions from net-release specimens handled with forceps). The male-attracted-to-female tactic is not foolproof because these sulphurs are known to occasionally hybridize. In fact, the ones with minimal orange flushes actually may all be hybrids. Many lepidopterists lump the hybrids in with Orange Sulphurs because the Clouded Sulphur is our true native sulphur, whereas the Orange Sulphur invaded the U.S. from Mexico in the 19th century, partly because so many farmers were using alfalfa and red clover, their main hosts, as cattle forage crops.—Dick Smith |
The phenograms show the maximum number of individual butterflies of this species seen in the first eight years of the Howard County Butterfly Survey. From these graphs, one can see the number of broods of each species, when they are active, and the relative abundance of the species in each brood. The observed early and late dates are shown below The graphs can be used to anticipate the first sighting of a given species in the year and can help with identification.
Early: 3/29/2018 Late: 12/27/2015