This beauty, the orange barred sulphur, emerged in the butterfly house yesterday and remained in the garden for a long time after flying free.

Its host plant is the Christmas cassia, candle plant and the Bahama cassia. I have the Bahama cassia in the garden. I bought it as a small tree for $5 from a native plant sale. It has almost tripled in size, and thankfully survived Hurricane Ian with a little help.

The butterfly’s wingspan is 65 to 55 mm and can be found throughout the southern portion of Florida. The females are larger in size than the male.

The male has a brighter yellow coloring with a bright orange bar. The hindwing has orange edges. The female, on the other hand, can be creamy white during the summer months, and golden yellow during the winter months with a suffused orange/red outer edge of its hindwing. The females do not have the orange bar coloring.

I have read that this butterfly was established in Florida in 1920. These beauties can be seen year round, although they are an uncommon sight at the Panhandle of Florida.