The cloudless sulphur butterfly returned to the garden this afternoon, leaving behind quite a few eggs (white on the side of the leaf) on our cassia tree.
Most of the time she is incredibly hard to photograph, as she does not stay long while laying eggs.
Although the adult sulphur’s are typically a vibrant shade of yellow, the female can be pale yellow or white during the summer months. During the winter months males sometimes have darker markings ventrally.
The beautiful cloudless sulphur has become a daily visitor of our garden.
To learn more about this butterfly, visit my page: https://bit.ly/3p1B8tz.
The cloudless sulphur is such an incredible brilliant hue of yellow. The best move we made was adding a cassia tree to our butterfly garden, as this butterfly always catches my eye when fluttering into the garden. This beautiful female spent a great deal of time in the garden this morning laying as many eggs as she could.
Although hard to tell, the female has a black border on her wings. She also has a dark spot on the center of the forewing. The male, on the other hand, is solid yellow.
These butterflies are attracted to red flowers. Unfortunately, with being so strongly attracted to red, they have also been known to fly into the red of car taillights.
The cloudless sulphur, although can be found throughout most of the United States, will travel to the southern United States, including Florida, during the fall, where they winter. When temperatures warm, they will travel north to the same breeding sites they visited the year before.
A stroll through the garden this morning revealed five cloudless sulphur caterpillars on our cassia tree.
These caterpillars do a wonderful job of camouflaging themselves. These caterpillars turn into a brilliant yellow butterfly, which have become a welcome visitor to our garden.
Our cloudless sulphur hatched this morning, bringing sunshine to our butterfly house with its amazing hue of lemony yellow. This is the second one we have successfully raised.
Be sure to check out https://bit.ly/3ODdxuB for more information, and photographs, of the cloudless sulphur lifecycle.
The legs of a butterfly have been catching my attention lately. When they walk on your hand it sometimes tickles.
Their legs are comprised of the coxa, trochanter, femur, tibia and tarsus. The coxa attaches the legs to the body, while the trochanter, a small segment, creates a movable joint with the coxa, according to the book “Florida Butterfly Gardening.” The femur is attached to the other end of the trochanter. The longest parts of the legs are the femur and tibia. The tarsus is comprised of five sections.
When a butterfly is looking for its host plant it will use the tarsus, smaller spines, to scratch the leaves.
Research shows that there are many generations of this butterfly in Florida. They are very abundant from August through November.
Of course it kept its wings closed before it rapidly took off making it hard to see if it was a male or female. This butterfly has a wingspan of 4.8 to 6.5 centimeters and is a fan of our cassia tree in our garden.
